By Zachary Pleat

Rush continues to suggest Obama “uncomfortable with the concept of victory”

Allergic to the facts as usual, Rush leapt into action by claiming that he did not hear President Obama list his objectives for the war during his speech, even though Obama clearly stated his objectives partway through his address:

Our overarching goal remains the same: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to prevent its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future.

To meet that goal, we will pursue the following objectives within Afghanistan. We must deny al Qaeda a safe haven. We must reverse the Taliban's momentum and deny it the ability to overthrow the government. And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan's security forces and government so that they can take lead responsibility for Afghanistan's future.

Rush then joined others in the right-wing media world, complaining that Obama did not use the words “victory” or “win” in his speech. Naturally, he used this to hammer home yet another smear against the commander in chief, which he repeated several times later in his show:

LIMBAUGH: He didn't talk about victory, because, remember: He's uncomfortable with the concept of victory. He has said this. And in Obama's world -- and I cannot -- I know some of you are not going to like this. But if you haven't learned yet not to doubt me, learn now. Do not doubt me. Barack Obama believes Al Qaeda has a point. Barack Obama believes our enemies have a point.

Rush's idea of victory is the same as President Obama's

“Chickenhawk” Rush then launched into a long and angry rant about what the speech should have covered, from troop levels to what kind of tactics should be used on the ground. Rush then began to detail what he thought “victory” should entail, which sounded remarkably similar to the first objective that Obama laid out in his speech:

LIMBAUGH: What is victory, Rush? What is victory? Come on, folks, are we descended to the point that we're going to argue with ourselves over what victory is? I'll tell you what it is. Victory is preventing our enemy, which killed nearly 3,000 Americans on 9-11, from using Afghanistan again to hit us. And it was the Taliban that gave Al Qaeda the safe haven that they needed.

Back from a break, after falsely claiming that Obama is doing nothing to secure weapons of mass destruction that could fall into the hands of terrorists, Rush followed Glenn Beck in parroting a Spiegel Online piece by a writer who seems to be wrong quite often when he talks about Obama. Rush returned to this piece several other times in his show. Rush then spent some time playing audio clips of post-speech analysis by cable and network news channels, alternatively embracing, mocking, and twisting the analyses. He continued doing this for much of the rest of his first hour.

For his second hour, Rush continued to attack Obama for his speech, declaring it “incoherent” and “an abomination,” belittling the speech by comparing it to a pre-game prep talk by a football coach. Rush then read former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's response, saying that he is calling out Obama as a liar. Rush then returned to picking apart post-speech analyses, eventually claiming that the knives are coming out over this speech. He then played several snippets of previous speeches in which Obama talked about Afghanistan and compared them to last night's address, declaring that Obama had given this speech before and that Obama was just faking his deliberations on what to do about Afghanistan for the past three months.

Rush: Obama's speech was “a concession speech ... a surrender speech”

Back from another break, Rush read a New York Post column by Fox News strategic analyst Ralph Peters. Next, Rush had a caller who proudly proclaimed that his son, an honors student in Latin, wants to attend West Point and that he bought his son a subscription to Rush's website last Christmas. The caller then helped out Rush by plugging membership on Rush's website. After the call, Rush plugged the site himself. Later on, Rush declared that Obama's only commitment last night was to the American left and ridiculed the idea that our forces could train Afghan military forces in 18 months. Rush then suggested that the Taliban just lie low for the next 18 months, after which they wouldn't have a problem overthrowing the Afghan government.

Back for his third hour, Rush read a Reuters article detailing Rep. Henry Waxman's views on future government involvement in the media. Rush declared that newspapers are in danger because of “content, content, content.” Next, Rush complained about a union threatening to strike during the Rockefeller Center tree lighting this year and presented a real pearl of wisdom: “Behind everything bad and everything sad is either a Democrat or a union.” Rush then read a Telegraph blog post by James Delingpole in order to continue pushing the false claim that “Climategate” proved global warming is a hoax. Rush continued with his favorite British news source on this topic for the rest of the segment.

After another break, Rush started laying down some ground rules for his unemployment summit on his show tomorrow with his listeners. Rush thought it would be funny to falsely tell unemployed Americans that Obama would be conducting job interviews at the White House tomorrow for his jobs summit to see if the jobless would line up outside the White House. Rush then complained that the current General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson “got canned.”

Back for the final half-hour of the day, Rush went back to his tired claim that "seasoned citizens" would face rationing under health care reform, and then turned this into a plug for one of his favorites, The Heritage Foundation. Next, Rush started screaming in response to a caller that enemy territory is not West Point, but our various theaters of conflict around the world. Rush then urged conservatives not to support our commander in chief:

LIMBAUGH: There's a lot of people on our side today trying to sound reasonable. A lot of people on our side, the conservative side, saying, “We must support our president in this. We must not be partisan on this issue, this national events, national security. We must get behind our president on this.” No. 'Cause our president gave his left-wing base the policy victory here. The president just surrendered.

Zachary Aronow and Kate Conway contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: He didn't talk about victory, because, remember: He's uncomfortable with the concept of victory. He has said this. And in Obama's world -- and I cannot -- I know some of you are not going to like this. But if you haven't learned yet not to doubt me, learn now. Do not doubt me. Barack Obama believes Al Qaeda has a point. Barack Obama believes our enemies have a point.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Of course he told the truth about what he thinks, but it's an outrageous truth. Why should we be -- why should we -- OK, you want to praise him for being honest? Fine. But the United States Military Academy is not the enemy camp. The enemy camp: MSNBC. The enemy camp is the White House right now. The enemy -- not to us. For the country.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: The left is complaining he's not pulling out fast enough. But forget them, because the left has never seen a war worth fighting or a war worth winning. The left is dangerous to the nation. They always have been, they always will be. But that does not mean Obama's not pulling out, which he is.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: What is victory, Rush? What is victory? Come on, folks, are we descended to the point that we're going to argue with ourselves over what victory is? I'll tell you what it is. Victory is preventing our enemy, which killed nearly 3,000 Americans on 9-11, from using Afghanistan again to hit us. And it was the Taliban that gave Al Qaeda the safe haven that they needed.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: You know, the next president, ladies and gentlemen, might want to create a new memorial: the tomb of the unknown hacker. Whoever this hacker was, blew the whistle on these phony climatologists, must be rewarded. The tomb of the unknown hacker.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: There's a lot of people on our side today trying to sound reasonable. A lot of people on our side, the conservative side, saying, “We must support our president in this. We must not be partisan on this issue, this national events, national security. We must get behind our president on this.” No. 'Cause our president gave his left-wing base the policy victory here. The president just surrendered.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: So, you have to imagine Mullah Omar and the boys sitting there watching Barack Obama say the same thing. While he admits that we've made some mistakes and essentially says, “Hey, look: These guys have a point. You know, we have made some mistakes here as a country.” I know that militant Islamists do not drink, but that speech last night could've made them break out the champagne as a first, folks. I mean, that's how bad it was.

Ego on loan from Narcissus

LIMBAUGH: All right, admit it, folks: Nobody really knows what to think of about speech until I weigh in on it, right? I mean, you're all -- even though you all have your opinions -- the most often-asked question across the country this morning is, “What does Rush think about it?” Well, I thought it was incoherent.