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The Trouble With Operation Rushbo
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For a president who demanded an end to “childish things,” the campaign against Limbaugh is incredibly cynical. Former Bush communications director Nicolle Wallace on how it’s playing out in the West Wing.
I can picture it now. They’re hunkered down in Rahm Emanuel’s West Wing office watching MSNBC’s 1,089th straight hour of Rush vs. Obama coverage. Carville is on the speaker phone. Begala is wearing an appointment badge and he and Axelrod are on the couch when Gibbs strolls in: “I popped him again at my briefing today.” They are so happy that Operation Rushbo is going as they planned, but they know they need to keep it fresh, so they’ve gathered to strategize about the next steps. Carville pipes in: “The media outlets will start adding Rush to their polls by this weekend. We let that happen and then we point to their polls. That’ll be better than doing another one of our own, now that this cat’s out of the bag.”
Obama relies on a villain to execute his communications strategy. It’s worked well for him, so far. Hillary Clinton was a perfect villain in the primaries.
They are so happy that we’re talking about something other than Wall Street’s “gag me with a spoon” reaction to the administration’s economic policies. They are thrilled that the cables have gone wall-to-wall with Rush coverage so that no one in America will find out about the pork-filled spending bill they are about to sign. They can’t believe their good fortune. “Oh yeah, come to papa,” Axelrod says as he scans the headlines from the left-wing blogs. Begala and Emanuel grin widely. “I’ve gotta go,” Emanuel says. “Figure out how to keep this thing going.”
This is one of the most able political teams in the country. Carville’s wife, Mary Matalin, likened the group of Begala, Emanuel and Carville to a “man’s knitting club,” but these guys are not knitting a sweater vest. They are making a villain. Obama relies on a villain to execute his highly effective communications strategy. Rail against an enemy, assign blame to this villain for everything that’s gone wrong in America, and then position himself as the only one with the correct skills and adequate morals to take on this villain. It’s worked well for him, so far. Hillary Clinton was a perfect villain in the primaries. Obama convinced enough Democrats that she represented “old Washington” and the tired politics of another era. He cornered her on her early Iraq vote, beat her with the change stick and then criticized her personality and questioned her likeability. Team Obama “saved” America from the Clintons. (Funny, then, that Clinton and dozens of her husband’s former advisers are now implementing all those “new” ideas.)
Then, Obama moved on to the general election. McCain didn’t make a very good villain. The whole war hero thing got in the way, so his team came up with a better villain: George W. Bush. Obama talked about President Bush so much that days would go by when he wouldn’t mention his opponent. He strode into office on a message of hope and change, but his demonization of Bush was unprecedented in focus and ferocity.
Now, instead of getting to the vital work of governing this troubled nation, they are shopping for a new villain. It’s a moment of choosing for this new president. Does he do what he promised to do in his inaugural address—demand an end to childish things? Not exactly. The White House chief of staff’s participation in what we now know from news reports by Politico’s Jonathan Martin to be a “coordinated” political operation is breathtaking for its audacity and its smarminess. I can think of no pursuit more childish than an Oval Office-initiated food fight with a talk-radio host.
But aside from diminishing the presidency and exposing a president who promised to elevate the dialogue in Washington to charges of hypocrisy, the strategy has a more serious flaw. It’s incredibly cynical. It assumes that voters are too stupid to know the difference between a talk-radio host and a party’s elected leaders.
Politically speaking, Republicans are in the wilderness, and we know it. I’ve likened our status to the early weeks of an American Idol season. Many of our performances in these early months after our defeat last November will be off-key and lacking in polish. But if we continue to elevate some of our rising stars, a leader will emerge. And looking at the Democrats’ gains from their bruising defeat in 2004 to their decisive victory in 2008, we have a great roadmap for our own recovery.
Nicolle Wallace was senior adviser to the McCain-Palin campaign from May to November 2008. She served President George W. Bush as an assistant to the president, director of communications for the White House, as well as communications director for President Bush's 2004 campaign.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Nicolle Wallace served as a senior adviser to the McCain-Palin campaign from May to November 2008. She served President George W. Bush as an assistant to the president and director of communications for the White House, as well as communications director for President Bush's 2004 campaign.
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Nicolle Wallace served as a senior adviser to the McCain-Palin campaign from May to November 2008. She served President George W. Bush as an assistant to the president and director of communications for the White House, as well as communications director for President Bush's 2004 campaign.
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Nicolle Wallace served as a senior adviser to the McCain-Palin campaign from May to November 2008. She served President George W. Bush as an assistant to the president and director of communications for the White House, as well as communications director for President Bush's 2004 campaign.
AAARGH! Yet another member of the team that lead the Bush Administration's attacks on american democratic principles pretending history didn't happen
The question is...
Should President Obama dignify that tub of lard, even if he is the leader of the Republican Party. PLEEEEASE...!
Best regards,
Econolicious
"He strode into office on a message of hope and change, but his demonization of Bush was unprecedented in focus and ferocity. Now, instead of getting to the vital work of governing this troubled nation, they are shopping for a new villain."
Cue the violin music...
Two problems: one, Rush didn't need anyone's help becoming a "villain." Two, President Obama has been incredibly busy governing, and hasn't said a public word about Rush.
Nothing Rahm Emmanuel stated was inaccurate or out of line. He responded to a question, although he did take the direction further. Further, we have witnessed elected Republicans later apologize to Rush Limbaugh.The GOP has not denounced Mr. Limbaugh's outrageous comments. If the President fails, the country fails.
The Democrats are right to go on the offensive now. Who wants a repeat of the Clinton bashing years?
Your subhead calls it the campaign AGAINST Limbaugh. Shouldn't it be the campaign FOR Limbaugh? Since he's reaping the most benefit.
Newsflash: McCain-Palin strategist still dislikes Obama.
Move along, nothing to see here.
Rush is what is wrong with America. He twists truth, omits facts and flat out lies to his listeners, most of whom want to be lied to in order to feel better about their greed and selfishness. Rush browbeats any republican who wants to compromise into submission and apology. Anything that can be done to stop him is a good thing, including the "Knitting Club" goading him until he finally says the thing that will outrage even his followers. It's only a matter of time.
Rush Limbaugh does not deserve to be an American.
Rush, PLEASE...STFD & STFU!!!
Gracias!
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Nicole.
The only thing "childish" here is you and the G.O.P. I suggest you look in the mirror rather than attempt to blame the Obama team for the Limbaugh baiting, it's a sad state of affairs when you have a pill popping, narcissistic, self loathing talk show host as the "Head" of the G.O.P.?. When Senator (who the last time I checked should only answer the constituents) become ass kissing cowards to Mr. Limbaugh you know who's in power and who is NOT.
Mr Obama has done more in the first few weeks of his presidency to "Elevate" the dialogue than Bush / Cheney and McCain did in the last 8.
The US economy is in it's worst condition since the great depression, we have two wars, the rest of the world has lost it's faith in the US, ( they have a respect for Obama though ) and the only strategic game plan the G.O.P. can come up with is to hope Mr Obama fails, that the economy is worse of in 18 to 20 months so they have a shot of returning to some glory...
Truly sad.
Making RashieBo a villain? Nah. That would be so hard to do.
Poor Republicans--Life really sucks when you have a self-serving, relentless promoter like ol' Rush constantly stirring the pot in an arena that features such political thought leaders as Michael Steele, Bobby Jindal, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Sarah Palin, et all.
Rush will say anything to keep his wonderful, well-informed listens glued to his ramblings. And if it means trashing the party in the meantime, oh, well. The Repubs are so afraid of this drug abusing, hyperventilating, blovating gas-bag, no one is willing to tangle with him. No "party leader" including McCain is willing to stand up and say this creep doesn't speak for me.
So the Dems are taking advantage...they are making poor Rush into the villian they need. If you ask me, it is Rush and the Republican party who are making Rush a villian. He is the nation's number one opportunist--and you guys are handing him a prime opportunity on a gold platter.
Them's the breaks, Nicki. It isn't like the Republicans haven't smeared liberals for years. Ol' Turd Blossom made a career out of it--in D.C. and beyond. Can you say Swift Boat???
And by the way, seems to me that Obama has gotten some pretty major legislation passed in the month and a half he's been president. I don't think he's wasting any time on Rush; but Rush knows a good thing and he's clearly wasting tons of vocal air pollution on Obama--and further fragmenting his party in the process.
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it sure does give you an idea of 'how it played out' in the Bushy White House, though, don't it now? gad!
Nicolle Wallace has jumped the shark. I won't be reading any more of her nonsense.
The "mens knitting club" villain creation scenario you've envisioned is very creative, but it is not journalism.
During the campaign, one is supposed to contrast oneself and ones' views and positions with their opponent. That's the whole point of a political campaign, to show a contrast and provide voters with a choice.
I don't want the President to be debating a talk radio host. He should be busy doing the peoples' work. I think Carville, Emmanuel and Gibbs are wasting their breath. I don't think they are conspiring to pick a fight with Rush, though. Noone solicited Rush to wish for this Presidents' agenda to fail.
I want the President to succeed because I want the country to succeed. I want results, and I'm willing to indulge the President on the method he chooses to use. Limbaugh doesn't like the method, and wishes for the nation to fail because we didn't choose to move in the direction he would have preferred when we voted in November.
@webb04
"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done"
This was Obama's advice to Republican leaders opposed to stimulus. Through this whole charade Obama is practicing the "Rules for Radicals":
Rule 5: Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It's hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don't try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
Sorry Ms. Wallace,
Rushbo's all yours. You used him when he helped you, and now that he's all you got left in the rump of your party, you've got to live with him. No one made Repus who criticized him go crawling back. All the Obominites are doing is pointing out his antics, and the Republicans inability to say no to him. He's one of yours, you have to deal with him.
Wow, Nicole Wallace is trying really, really hard.
Obama is calling out the Republicans for their loyalty to DittoHead ideology and their disloyalty to country and constituents. Virtually every Republican utterance parrots right wing radio.
Rush's villainy is not a creation of the White House. The fact is that republicans simply allows the latest right wing radio diatribe to become THE republican agenda. They have nothing else. Any "rising stars" will need to express fealty to Rush or they will be unmercifully destroyed.
You married that corpulent villain and now you can't get him off.
The former communications director for a DICTATOR. Is that supposed to impress me? WTF are you people smoking? Nicole Wallace, former director of propaganda for the Bush Banana Republic. I am not going to even waste my time reading this POS article because I know the level of BS contained in it by just seeing who authored it. ZERO integrity.
Limbaugh, the guy who said this:
"We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward, whichever, because his father was black, because this is the first black president."
Go ahead GOP. Stand by this guy. Your fearless leader.
Give it up Nicole. You were wrong last night on CNN. You're wrong in this article. You were wrong supporting McCain. You were dead wrong supporting Bush.
When was the last time you were right?
The crux of Wallace's argument lies in the statement "They are making a villain." Obama's political team aren't making villains, they're directing public attention to them. To me, the choice that best defines Bush as an immoral man was his veto of an additional thirty-five billion dollars in funding to the SCHIP program, which would have expanded health insurance to the children of families unable to afford medical care for their kids, claiming the money wasn't there. Bush didn't have a problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars on an unnecessary war. Choosing murder over helping the helpless is the choice of an evil man.
Had Clinton won the Democratic nomination and ultimately the Presidency, our country would continue a social battle that began almost fifty years ago among the Baby Boomers and perpetuates itself today within a divided generation. Our country needs to escape the governance of the Hillarys, the Newts, and other politicians of their age who still define themselves by old memories of siding with Kennedy or Nixon. Obama was right to declare that America needs to get away from that divide.
McCain was a competent senior senator and presidential aspirant until he made a Faustian bargain to follow the suggestions of Steve Schmidt and others of his ilk, including Wallace, in order to reach the White House. They turned McCain into a mean-spirited candidate who premised his campaign on innuendo and the worst instincts of his constituents rather than enlightened debate. McCain didn't start out as a villain, but Wallace helped make him one.
Rush Limbaugh is a bullying drug abuser who chooses to aggrandize himself by debasing others in the public forum rather than have civil discussion. He claims to be a Conservative, although there's little that is conservative about him. Instead, he's a model of self-indulgence. Based on his words and actions, he does not appear to be a good person. Unfortunately, because of the fecklessness of current Republican leadership, Limbaugh has emerged as the rallying voice of the Republican Party. Rahm Emmanuel and other Democratic leaders are simply affirming the obvious.
Given Wallace's history as an enabler of villainy, I'd recommend to anybody that reads her articles that they parse her words very carefully, because she's a villain too.
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Does the GOP truly think Rush speaks for the majority of voting Americans? Do they really think he is their route back to power? Oooh. I hope so! Moderates and liberals rejoice - victory is ours again in the next round of elections.
Thank you.
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