This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Saul Alinsky's (postmortem) puppeteering
By Simon Maloy

Good afternoon, everyone. We're fast approaching President Obama's 100th day in office, and in celebration of that arbitrary milestone, Media Matters assembled a best-of list of bogus claims coming out of the media in these early days of the administration. Needless to say, El Rushbo already factors heavily into the list of examples, and you can be sure he'll revisit those falsehoods in the days (and hours) to come.

Rush kicked off today's show claiming that there's a “giant disconnect” between the perception of President Obama and the reality of President Obama, attempting to explain why Obama's approval numbers remain so high despite Rush's continued insistence that Obama, less than 100 days in, is the worst president ever. Rush said Obama has two “magic words” -- “torture” and “Bush” -- that he uses to distract everyone from the “fact” that “not one thing” the administration has taken up has improved. Actually, it may be that the public -- unlike Rush -- understands that the massive problems the administration has inherited will take longer than 100 days to fix: “Seven in 10 Americans say it is reasonable to expect it to take longer than a year to see the results of Obama's economic policies.”

Anyway, one of the failures Rush singled out was the fact that we're faced with a swine flu outbreak, and Obama has installed neither a surgeon general nor a director for the Centers for Disease Control. We suspect that might be because Kathleen Sebelius' nomination as Health and Human Services secretary has been delayed by Republicans in the Senate. Rush's explanation, however, is that Obama “doesn't care” that these positions are vacant, he's going to handle their duties himself and “exploit” the issue.

Then Rush told us how he spent his weekend -- discussing with his friends various conspiracies regarding who is really in power at the White House, because it clearly isn't Obama. Various names were tossed out: David Axelrod, George Soros, the Kings of Jordan or Saudi Arabia. One theory was that Obama, in bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia, was trying to “paralyze” our defenses against terrorism. Rush wasn't having any of that though -- the real puppetmaster is zombie Saul Alinsky, who is pulling Obama's strings from beyond the grave. According to Rush, Obama is capitalizing on the swine flu scare exactly as Alinksy would have advised him to, in that Obama is telling everyone he's defending them from an enemy that doesn't pose a threat. Rush then explained that Republican presidents could never get away with playing golf during a swine flu outbreak, they'd be called uncaring. But Obama can get away with it, says Rush, because those sorts of labels don't stick to Obama, even though Obama “strikes” Rush “as a good-times, fairly lazy individual.”

Anyway, Rush explained that Obama has figured out that he can get away with pretty much anything he wants because he has the numbers in Congress -- the GOP can't stop him and there's no “sabotage or obstruction” coming from the Democrats. And yet, Rush reiterated, he hasn't fixed anything -- not the auto industry, stock market, nothing. Once again, Rush claimed, there's a “disconnect” between Obama's “abject failures” and his poll numbers. Rush then aired audio of Obama's teleprompter “screwing” with him at the National Academy of Sciences this morning. Never get tired of those teleprompter jokes...

After the break, Rush aired some sound bites of Obama's comments at the National Academy of Sciences, in which the president vowed to renew government investment in science, which he said had fallen off over the past 25 years. Rush claimed this was Obama blaming Bush and the rest of the Republicans for slashing spending on science. After noting that Obama had linked this to the swine flu outbreak, Rush added: “And how about this? You know, one of the early victims of the swine flu was the guy who shook Obama's hand at the museum in Mexico City when he went down there in a little stop here before he went to the Summit of the Americas.” Now, this is a fun little conspiracy theory that the conservative blogs have picked up, referring to the late Felipe Solís, a Mexican anthropologist who met Obama during his visit. But it's flat-out false. The Mexican government issued a statement on this exact claim, demonstrating that it is absolutely untrue: “En tanto, el secretario de Salud, José Ángel Córdova, informó ayer que el director del Museo Nacional de Antropología, Felipe Solís, quien asistió el 16 de abril a la cena en honor a Obama, no falleció a causa de influenza, sino que tenía 'patologías previas' que causaron su deceso.” Luckily, here at the Limbaugh Wire, hablamos español: “The Secretary of Health, José Ángel Córdova, said yesterday that the director of the National Museum of Anthropology, Felipe Solís, who attended the April 16 dinner in honor of Obama, did not die from influenza; rather, existing medical issues caused his death.”

Rush then read extensively from this Washington Post story on two South Carolina Obama supporters dismayed at the continued economic downturn in their state since the inauguration. Rush presented them as indicative of Obama supporters, who acknowledge that Obama is failing, but still love him anyway.

After the break, Rush attacked the UN for issuing a warning for a worldwide flu pandemic, claiming that it is “by design” to get people to respond to government orders. The media fall right in line with this stuff, Rush said, amplifying the nature of the crisis. Rush -- in his capacity as public health expert -- added that “the flu's a common thing.” Then, by request, he re-aired the audio of Obama “getting screwed” by the teleprompter.

Rounding out the hour, Rush took a call from a man claiming that he entered his information into the White House's mortgage relief website and was subsequently inundated with offers from law firms to help with his mortgage, for a fee. Rush was excited by this and said he wanted to hear more examples of this from other people.

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: I look at Obama -- he strikes me as a good-times, fairly lazy individual; not a deep thinker, but a true ideologue.

America's Truth Rejector

Falsely claimed a Mexican man who shook Obama's hand died of swine flu:

LIMBAUGH: And how about this? You know, one of the early victims of the swine flu was the guy who shook Obama's hand at the museum in Mexico City when he went down there in a little stop here before he went to the Summit of the Americas.

Clip from this hour

Limbaugh conspiracy theory: flu issue is “designed to get people to respond to government orders”