How is Obama Vs. Limbaugh like Obama Vs. Iran?

Remember how everyone made fun of Sarah Palin because she couldn't manage to become a foreign policy genius in the ten days between when she got the nod from McCain and when Charlie Gibson got his hands on her?

Well a lot of the folks who like to make fun of Sarah's lack of foreign policy experience forget that it took Obama a long time to become the mediocre foreign policy thinker he is today. Two years ago he was saying some outrageously silly things about what he thought it took to be a superpower in the modern world. Hell, it wasn't even a year go that he said as President he would immediately begin direct negotiations with Iranian madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "without preconditions."

Of course he immediately backtracked on that dubious plan after everyone, his own party included, savaged him over the total naivete of the idea. But now that he's President, he appears determined to make good on his original pledge, which so far is working out almost exactly as we all imagined it would.

So why does all of this make me think of Obama's current feud with Rush Limbaugh?

Well because back when Obama made his comments about direct talks with Iran, the point many of us made was that Ahmadinejad was (and is) a silly tinpot dictator with delusions of grandeur DESPERATE for legitimacy on the world stage. After all, that is exactly what his quest for a nuclear bomb is all about. He's a whiny little boy and no one pays attention to him... but if he can get himself a really big gun....

Rush Limbaugh, over the last 8 years, has had a similar problem. In the 90's he was huge. The Clinton presidency made him a star. He actually WAS the voice of the Conservative movement in those days. He had access to all the best people and all the best restaurants. There wasn't a Senator or Congressperson alive on the Right who wasn't falling all over him or herself to get on his show around election time. He was even made an honorary member of Congress after the Republican takeover in 1994.

He was the real deal.

Now? Not so much. His struggles with deafness have made him seem like a feeble old man. His well-publicized drug foibles have allowed many on the Left to paint him as a hypocritical old crank. And his myriad disagreements with the current crop of Neoconservatives (George Bush included) have left him marginalized and without a broader audience beyond the 15 million or so listeners that tune in to him every day.

It's likely that without a major intervention on Obama's part, Rush Limbaugh would have, eventually, sailed off quietly into the night.

But then Obama went in front of a camera and reminded the world that the troll under the bridge is still there... and he's still dangerous.

It's an old marketing no-no... if you are the big dog in the marketplace, you never, EVER, mention the competition. That's why you'll never hear Burger King mentioned in a McDonald's ad.

By mentioning Rush by name in a press conference, Obama has given Limbaugh a platform once again, and he has made the most of it. His first comment after Obama warned Republicans that they should not listen to Rush was a classic. He said something to the effect of "how can anyone look at what the Republicans have done over the last 8 years and argue with a straight face that they've been listening to me!?"

And since everyone loves a good media fight, several major news outlets gave Rush a valuable forum to rebut the new President's remarks... and his rebuttals were, simply put, devastating.

Bottom line, Rush won the first round, and now he's back and bigger than ever because Obama couldn't keep his mouth shut. He just HAD to engage.

And this is exactly the same risk Obama runs when he reaches out to the little Iranian madman. And I fear that if he continues on course, he will do for Ahmadinejad what he has done for Rush, make him bigger and more powerful than ever. The only difference being, ratings success for Rush does not carry with it the threat of a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv.