Hour 2: Limbaugh Mocks Sen. McCain's Mother

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by "creeping socialism"
By Karl Frisch and Greg Lewis

Rush began the second hour of today's program commenting on Sen. John McCain's mother's comments about Rush on last night's Tonight Show. Rush played some audio clips and then suggested that McCain probably plotted with his mother to "dump[]" on El Rushbo.

Then Limbaugh read a story from The Wall Street Journal reporting on unemployment numbers. Rush reiterated his statements from yesterday, accusing the Obama administration of targeting achievers in the country, as well as those striving to become achievers. Rush said they are making it more "improbable" for people to realize the American dream, and that Obama's voters are the ones "getting screwed."

The talker "with talent on loan from God" then discussed how the "bureaucrats" are running Chrysler -- by planning to close over 3,000 dealerships (actually, it's 789) and cutting their advertising budget, claiming this would tremendously hurt the private sector and make their cars "invisible" and harder to find. Limbaugh complains a lot about how the government is handling the auto industry's problems -- we'd like to hear his comprehensive alternatives sometime. Rush then talked about his perception of how Obama is handling these situations: "You know, Hugo Chavez doesn't have the cojones to try what Obama is trying without legislation. Every day, every day brings more and more creeping socialism. And he's trying to ram it through as quickly as possible. Succeeding, too, before there's a serious revolution to it all." Viva la revolucion!

Rush then posed a question to the dittoheads: "You ever notice that everywhere you look, everywhere you look in our society, in our country, where there is an industry in major trouble you'll find a union? In the public sector, whenever there's trouble you will find a union?" Rush answered this question with a blog post from his beloved Heritage Foundation about the "public-sector union threat to economic recovery."

After the break, Rush took a few calls. The first caller asked a question regarding Obama releasing the detainee photos, and Rush repeated his point from the previous hour that Obama could prevent their release with an executive order, but he's not doing that. The next caller asked about the political implications for Obama's agenda if he releases records that would hurt Pelosi. Rush thought the records would eventually get released anyway, and said again that Pelosi is fighting for her career.

Well, Rush had been relatively tame so far today -- until the next segment, when he excoriated Obama over his commencement speech at Arizona State University yesterday. The gist of Limbaugh's anger, which he expressed in between playing clip of the president's speech, was that Obama was taking aim at "self-interest" and "rugged individualism" when he advised graduates not to only strive for wealth. Rush continued: "Is that what the graduates at Arizona State University wanted to hear, that America sucks? You've just spent four or five years, whatever number of years they've spent there. They sure as hell did not go to college to join a homeless shelter. They did not go to college to flip hamburgers. They didn't go to college to sit around and not use their education. Is that what they want to hear, that America sucks? From the president of the United States?"

Then, after playing some clips in which Obama implored graduates to consider working at nonprofits, Rush responded: "By definition, how does a nonprofit operate? A nonprofit begs for money from other people. A nonprofit lives on donations, and the people who run nonprofits have to siphon some of the donations that they collect as their salaries." Rush, however, did clarify a few minutes later that some nonprofits are OK -- probably when he realized his blanket attack on nonprofits would have included conservative groups like The Heritage Foundation. By the way, you can support Media Matters with a donation -- you know, in honor of Rush's comment.

In the final segment before the break, Limbaugh again summed up his feelings on Obama's "outrageous" commencement address: ": You just heard four sound bytes from Obama, commencement speech at Arizona State: America sucks, American exceptionalism is over, the American military is immoral, and you shouldn't strive anything -- toward anything that involves improving yourself. You should work for the success of others." You can judge for yourself the message President Obama left with ASU grads by watching the entire commencement address here: part 1, part 2, part 3.

Highlights from Hour 2

Echo chamber:

Rush read from a post on The Heritage Foundation's The Foundry blog.

Socialist watch:

LIMBAUGH: You know, Hugo Chavez doesn't have the cojones to try what Obama is trying without legislation. Every day, every day brings more and more creeping socialism. And he's trying to ram it through as quickly as possible. Succeeding, too, before there's a serious revolution to it all.

Outrageous remarks:

LIMBAUGH: You ever notice that everywhere you look, everywhere you look in our society, in our country, where there is an industry in major trouble you'll find a union? In the public sector, whenever there's trouble you will find a union?

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Is that what the graduates at Arizona State University wanted to hear, that America sucks? You've just spent four or five years, whatever number of years they've spent there. They sure as hell did not go to college to join a homeless shelter. They did not go to college to flip hamburgers. They didn't go to college to sit around and not use their education. Is that what they want to hear, that America sucks? From the president of the United States?

[...]

LIMBAUGH: By definition, how does a nonprofit operate? A nonprofit begs for money from other people. A nonprofit lives on donations, and the people who run nonprofits have to siphon some of the donations that they collect as their salaries.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: You just heard four sound bytes from Obama, commencement speech at Arizona State: America sucks, American exceptionalism is over, the American military is immoral, and you shouldn't strive anything -- toward anything that involves improving yourself. You should work for the success of others.