On the March 9 edition of Fox News' Special Report, host Bret Baier reported: “Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been under fire for saying he wants President Obama to fail. Limbaugh has since explained he was talking about the president's policies and not the president specifically or the economy.” In fact, on February 13, responding to a caller's question about whether Limbaugh wanted the economic recovery package to fail, Limbaugh said, “I hope it prolongs the recession.” Limbaugh has also repeatedly said he wants Obama specifically to fail.

From Limbaugh's February 13 show, as transcribed (subscription required and emphasis added) on his website:

CALLER: Well, I understand that. Like I oppose the stimulus package, for instance, because of the overspending, but once it is passed, do we have another choice? How can you oppose it once it's passed?

RUSH: Oh, (sigh). Easily. I oppose it beforehand; I oppose it afterwards. I'm being consistent. You know the reason? You know why I oppose it, Trevor?

RUSH: Well, because I'm all for prosperity and opportunity and freedom. I don't want people to be poor. I don't want people to be unemployed. I don't want people to be hopeless. I don't want people to be misled. I don't want people to be lied to. I don't want people to be told that somebody like government is going to do something for them when they're not.I want this to fail because this is the most expansive expenditure in the Democrat Party and liberalism's power that there has ever been. I hope it blows up in their face. I hope this thing does exactly what those of us who have studied these kinds of things do. I hope it prolongs the failure. I hope it prolongs the recession. Because people are going to have to figure out here that this is not how economies recover. Government is not the central planner. Government is not control of this. Government can't do it. This is a disaster. And, you know, I could sit here and say, “Yeah, I'm going to cross my fingers and hope and pray this is the first time this works,” but if this works, the America that you and I know is over, Trevor, for your kids. It's over for a generation. It just is.

Earlier during his February 13 show, Limbaugh said: “Of course I want Obama to fail. And after this stimulus bill package passes, I want it to fail.”

Baier's claim echoes Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace's March 8 assertion that Limbaugh “wasn't saying, 'I want the president to fail' -- he was saying, 'I want his policies, his agenda to fail,' and that he disagreed with them and thought they were bad for America.” In fact, in addition to his February 13 remarks, Limbaugh's website features a transcript (subscription required) of his January 16 segment with a headline reading simply: “Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails.” More recently, as Media Matters for America documented, Limbaugh said on February 27: “The dirty little secret ... is that every Republican in this country wants Obama to fail but none of them have the guts to say so; I am willing to say it. We want him to fail because we want to preserve our country as we found it. We do not want to see a successful attack on capitalism.” Additionally, in his February 28 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Limbaugh described "[t]his notion that I want the president to fail" as “nothing more than common sense.”

From the March 9 edition of Fox News' Special Report:

BAIER: Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been under fire for saying he wants President Obama to fail. Limbaugh has since explained he was talking about the president's policies and not the president specifically or the economy.