This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the Canadian border's inability to contain “bad ideas” ... and Mark Steyn
By Greg Lewis

The second hour of today's Mark-stravaganza kicked off with Mark Steyn noting that Rev. Al Sharpton has called for the Postal Service to issue a commemorative Michael Jackson stamp, and has also called for a national day of mourning in Jackson's honor. Steyn quipped that we've already had 12 days of national mourning for him -- why not just stick Jackson on Mount Rushmore moonwalking on Teddy Roosevelt's head? Steyn then proceeded to discuss Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), who spoke at Jackson's memorial, and who has called for a congressional resolution honoring him.

Steyn then spent some time with a caller who happened to be a Ron Paul supporter. The caller told Steyn that Obama was governing exactly the same as former President Bush had -- the stimulus was just a continuation of TARP. Steyn agreed with this point to a degree -- he explained that the difference between the two administrations was that they are like two cars heading in the same direction, but the Obama administration has put its foot on the accelerator.

The caller then changed gears (to stick with the car theme...) to foreign policy. He felt that our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were about our advancement of empire and territory. Steyn, a self-described “product” of empire, didn't agree, and asserted that the U.S. was actually the “least imperial people on the planet.” He then lamented the ineffectiveness of our borders:

STEYN: Fifty percent of the population of Mexico is now living in your state of California, and 100 percent of every bad Canadian idea has seeped south of the 49th Parallel, so that, now, in America, it seems entirely normal to be talking about confiscatory taxation and socialized health care.

On the subject of the “seepage” of “every bad Canadian idea” across the border, we'd like to remind you that Steyn is from Canada. Just sayin'.

Steyn continued lecturing the Ron Paul-supporting caller on how he should properly view the world order. The idea of “Fortress America,” he explained, is no longer a valid concept because there are plenty of places in the world where nobody cares what happens. “Nickel-and-dime dictators” are able to get away with killing and torturing millions of their own people without attracting any attention from the rest of the world.

After the break, Steyn took a caller who defended Bush against his own TARP policy -- which he said conservatives think was dumb and stupid -- by claiming that Bush “had to be convinced against his better judgment” to support the policy by Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke. While Steyn emphasized that he did not support that policy at the time, and that Bush was “shanghaied” by Paulson, it was nevertheless his administration and he has to take responsibility for it. Steyn then went on to explain his overall “suspicion” with bipartisan legislation. If you want a functioning two-party system, said Steyn, you have to stop this “socialized health care thing” because it's a “permanent game changer.” If it passes, it will be a “game changer” that would make a functioning conservative government “impossible.”

Steyn returned after another break to ramble something about Alec Baldwin possibly running for the Senate and a movie Baldwin was in with Anne Heche. Incoherent rambling must have been the theme of the hour, because Steyn's next caller joined in on the fun. The caller identified himself as an Obama voter and said he voted this way because he felt Sen. John McCain was another Bush. When Steyn pressed the caller to cite a positive reason he voted for Obama, the caller said it was because of Obama's position to prevent American manufacturing from going overseas. Steyn told the caller that if he was concerned with American industry, nothing Obama is doing is going to help. Why do you think unemployment is up? Steyn asked. He proceeded to ramble on about the boutique business industry in Vermont.

After another break, Steyn brought us another caller who said she regretted voting for Obama. The caller explained how she was “blinded” by the notion of voting for a “non-Caucasian” president. Steyn pressed her on who she would vote for in 2012, but the caller said she wasn't sure. Then Steyn went off on his point that you can “afford to indulge yourself” in voting based on superficial issues when everything is great, but, right now, times are not good. He finished off the hour with this assessment of the Obama presidency:

STEYN: So there is no limit to the damage that a president with determined statist policies can inflict on you. I mean, this is like Jimmy Carter on steroids. He can clobber your home; he can clobber your savings and your pensions; he can clobber your job, and he can devalue -- he can basically end the dollar as a world currency; he can clobber your health care. I mean, basically, he can get you on every front.

Simon Maloy, Zachary Pleat, and Ariana Probinsky contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

STEYN: So there is no limit to the damage that a president with determined statist policies can inflict on you. I mean, this is like Jimmy Carter on steroids. He can clobber your home; he can clobber your savings and your pensions; he can clobber your job, and he can devalue -- he can basically end the dollar as a world currency; he can clobber your health care. I mean, basically, he can get you on every front.

On America's borders

STEYN: Where I part company with Ron Paul -- Ron Paul talks, you know, a lot of sense on fiscal issues and things, but the idea that you can have an -- in the modern world, you can have an isolationist superpower that can hold the entire planet at bay, that can retreat within “Fortress America” -- what fortress? This is a country that cannot even hold two relatively benign neighbors at bay.

Fifty percent of the population of Mexico is now living in your state of California, and 100 percent of every bad Canadian idea has seeped south of the 49th Parallel, so that, now, in America, it seems entirely normal to be talking about confiscatory taxation and socialized health care. You -- the “Fortress America” delusion, the “Fortress America” delusion, the isolationist republic far from the cares of the world, which was a valid concept in the early 19th century, does not work now.