Wednesday, January 28, 2009

At first I thought Obama should...

...just ignore Rush Limbaugh; engaging him would just add to his credibility. After all, he isn't really a serious journalist, he's an entertainer. I've heard him say as much:

“First and foremost I’m a businessman. My first goal is to attract the largest possible audience so I can charge confiscatory ad rates. I happen to have great entertainment skills, but that enables me to sell airtime.”

But Obama doesn't make too many bad moves. Take the Hillary appointment; what seemed questionable to me at first now looks shrewd. And now I'm beginning to wonder if Obama is playing Limbaugh. The Republicans are a party in turmoil. They were crushed in the last election among almost all demographics. After the Bush administration's handling of the financial crisis, they are no longer the party of free markets and small government. There is no obvious leader and it's hard to know what they stand for anymore. I may be reading too much into this, but by making an entertainer the face of the opposition, Obama might diminish their credibility and pave the way for his stimulus package.

While I'm on the subject, let's put Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly in that category of non-serious journalists. Neither one is a seeker of truth; they're just sophists who want to win arguments.

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