This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by rugged individualism
by Simon Maloy

Rush kicked off the final hour with some sad news -- he'll be out on Monday for another charity golf outing. In his place will be Mark Steyn, who once described Michelle Obama as “Kim Jong-Il dressed up with a bit of Oprah Winfrey dressing.” So he should do just fine ...

Rush then expressed concern that some in his audience might not understand what he meant when he said over and over and over that Obama wants to destroy individualism and capitalism and the country. Rush embarked on an extended monologue about the source of our freedom, and praised rugged individualism -- that spirit that led mankind to discover the New World and fly to the moon. A fine example of this spirit of rugged individualism, according to Rush, is the tremendously successful Rush Limbaugh. After extolling his listeners to believe in themselves, Rush explained that Obama wants “to control and to limit freedom. Because the only way Obama can get the power he wants, and the Democrats can get the power they want, is if you willingly turn it over to them by getting rid of your self-interest, your self-respect and holding your best interests at heart.”

Coming back from commercials, Rush took a caller who expressed her offense at Obama's Special Olympics remarks and subsequent apology. Rush agreed, again calling Obama “cold,” “angry,” and possessed of a “chip on his shoulder.”

Back from another advertising time-out, Rush returned to his Obama-Palin comparison from the first hour, contrasting Obama's Special Olympics comments with those of Sarah Palin. Rush's point was to illustrate how “false images” -- that of “suave” Obama and “vulgar” Palin -- can be “created and magnified” by the media.

Then Rush took a call from a woman endeavoring to correct Rush on his comments regarding mark-to-market accounting and Enron from earlier in the week. After a brief conversation, the caller said she did not think Enron was corrupt, and Limbaugh asked her thoughts on AIG. She was happy that the AIG executives got those bonuses, and Rush proclaimed her “my kind of woman” because she has “courage.” However, he might have rethought that sentiment shortly thereafter, when the caller offered some interesting theories on the Enron scandal -- specifically that, while former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow stole from Enron, Enron itself did nothing wrong and was a “victim.”

One more break and one more Tonight Show sound byte, which, according to Rush, “dovetailed” nicely with his claim that Obama is attacking individualism. He aired audio of Obama saying: “We need young people instead of this smart kid coming out of school instead of wanting to be an investment banker, we need them to decide that they want to be an engineer. They want to be a scientist. They want to be a doctor or a teacher. And if we're rewarding those kind of things that actually contribute to making things and making people's lives better, that's going to put our economy on solid footing.” Rush's response? “It's none of his damn business what you want to do with your life!” Rush reiterated his “A” for AIG remarks, adding: “He wants people in that business to be hated. He wants people in that business to be suspects.”

Thus concludes another week of The Limbaugh Wire. We're going to spend the weekend curled in the fetal position and gently weeping as our NCAA bracket self-destructs. If you're not doing the same, we highly recommend a thorough reading of Media Matters' ongoing and exhaustive Limbaugh coverage. And check out the rest of the site too. We hear they have some good stuff there.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Everybody's trying to hold everybody back. It's just human nature, and it's only the belief in yourself that propels you through all of those things and yourself as the individual. I got fired seven times. One time was it probably justified, the other times due to vagaries of the broadcast business. But each time I got fired, the person who fired me said, “You know, you really don't have what it takes to succeed here. If you want to stay in this business, you need go into sales or something else because you just -- you really don't have that much talent.” And I'm saying to myself, “How would you know? You've never let me exhibit it. You and your brilliant management have come up with ways that I can only say this here or that there or I can only take that much time -- how do you know what my talent is? And when was the last time you really cared to find out what my talent is?” Without believing in yourself, you're going nowhere, and you won't believe in yourself if somebody beats the individual out of you, if somebody convinces you that you don't deserve to do any better than anyone else because that's not fair. And they are teaching you that in school about your grades, and they're teaching you that about economics -- it's not fair that you have a nicer car than the schlub down the street, it's just not fair. It's humiliating to the people who have less. So they're trying to beat the individual out of you, and the individual in you, the belief in yourself is the only thing you've got to compete against everybody that's trying to hold you back, and they all are. It's the way of the world.

You look at things from afar, you look at pop culture, you look at movie stars, and you think that's a community and they all decided one day -- they all decided that Cameron Diaz is great, and they all got together and they all love Cameron Diaz and they've all made her a big star. That's the image they project because they want you to think it's a giant -- Cameron Diaz is like everybody else. She had to fight for everything she has, and she's -- they're nipping at her heels now as she gets older -- same thing with Julia Roberts. It doesn't change no matter where you are, no matter what kind of glamour. You take a look around you. The genuinely successful people that you see who you want to be did not check their individualism at the door when they started their work. They didn't check their self-interest at the door, and they didn't check their self-respect, and they didn't turn over the belief in themselves to somebody else. That's all I'm talking about, and that's under assault by this administration, which wants to control and limit freedom. Because the only way Obama can get the power he wants, and the Democrats can get the power they want, is if you willingly turn it over to them by getting rid of your self-interest, your self-respect and holding your best interests at heart. Your best interests do not coincide with the government's, especially now.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: This sound byte dovetails with what I was saying all day long about this administration targeting individualism. This administration and the Democrat Party have an all-out assault on capitalism, individualism, and freedom, and this is how it happens. Obama last night on Tthe Tonight Show.

OBAMA [audio clip]: We need young people instead of, you know, this smart kid coming out of school instead of wanting to be an investment banker, we need them to decide that they want to be an engineer. They want to be a scientist. They want to be a doctor or a teacher. And if we're rewarding those kind of things that actually contribute to making things and making people's lives better, that's going to put our economy on solid footing. We won't have this bubble-and-bust economy that we've gotten so caught up in for the last several years.

LIMBAUGH: Now, this is part of his existence. His wife said the same thing in Zanesville, Ohio, back during the campaign. Don't be a lawyer, don't be an investment banker. Stay as a nurse of what have you. So here is the president of the United States on the Tonight Show, which, you know, the audience of that show -- what would you want to guess the average IQ of the audience of the Tonight Show is? Don't be an investment banker. Do not do that. You will destroy America. It's none of his damn business what you want to do with your life. It's none of his business unless he's paying your education, unless he's your father, and even then it's your life and you can do with it what you want. Of all of the occupations, don't be an investment banker. Why? Who's he targeting? He wants everyone in finance to wear a giant red A for AIG. He wants people in that business to be hated. He wants people in that business to be suspects. Instead of, you know, smart kid coming out of school, instead of wanting to be an investment banker, we need them to decide that they want to be an engineer, a scientist, a doctor, a teacher. And if we're rewarding those kind of things, which actually contribute to making things and making people's lives better. You don't think this guy has a bug up his dress? You don't think this guy has got a chip on his shoulder about wealthy people, what he thinks are wealthy -- you don't think this guy has a prejudice?