Rush Invites Obama To Go Mano y Mano

Rush to the president:

Now that your handlers are praising themselves for promoting me as the head of a political party -- they think that's a great thing -- then it should be a no-brainer for you to further advance this strategy by debating me on the issues and on the merits, and wipe me out once and for all!

Just come on this program. Let's have a little debate. You tell me how wrong I am and you can convince the rest of the Americans that don't agree with you how wrong we all are. You're a smart guy, Mr. President. You don't need these hacks to front for you. You've debated the best! You've debated Hillary Clinton. You've debated John Edwards. You've debated Joe Biden. You've debated Dennis Kucinich. You've debated the best out there. You are one of the most gifted public speakers of our age. I would think, Mr. President, you would jump at this opportunity. Don't send lightweights like Begala and Carville to do your bidding -- and forget about the ballerina, Emanuel. He's got things to do in his office. These people, compared to you, Mr. President, are rhetorical chum.

I would rather have an intelligent, open discussion with you where you lay out your philosophy and policies and I lay out mine -- and we can question each other, in a real debate. Any time here at the EIB Network studios. If you're too busy partying or flying around giving speeches and so forth, then send Vice President Biden. I'm sure he would be very capable of articulating your vision for America -- and if he won't work, send Geithner, and we can talk about the tax code. And if that won't work, go get Bob Rubin. I don't care. Send whoever you want if you can't make it. ...

As noted by many others, this is obviously an offer Obama cannot accept. And yet, did he not raise the possibility of the spectacle by holding up Rush as someone the Republicans "should not be listening to" and then doubling down by having his staffers repeatedly attack Rush?
A reader at Instapundit

"Obama is discovering that he has no power at all over people that do not give a damn what the media thinks. If other Republicans were less craven he would be in deep trouble, instead of just headed for deep trouble."

Obama's miscalculation here is probably based on the typical Democratic/liberal perception of Rush and not who he really is. There are loudmouth arrogant, bigoted blowhards on Right Wing talk radio, but they are mostly named Michael Savage. Rush on the other hand is extremely mainstream, extremely easy to listen to, often hilarious, and one of the sharpest political analysts I've heard. Twenty million listeners know this, the rest of the 280 million Americans will soon find out. Obama crowning him as chief of the GOP? Fine by me, say most mainstream conservatives.

Susan Estrich understands:

He talks for hours every day. He gets paid to talk. Just talk. Doing it well is no small thing; witness the number of people who have tried to be him, or be the NOT-him, and failed. But he doesn't have to build a coalition. He doesn't need the votes of the other side to earn his check. He doesn't have to write the legislation, convince Olympia Snowe, raise money to keep the lights on, put his name on the ballot. All the things he doesn't have to do give him the freedom to be as effective as he is at what he does.

Trying to beat him at his own game when your own game is played by a different set of rules is a losing proposition. He knows that.

...

When I first started doing talk radio, I listened to Rush Limbaugh in the morning to figure out how to do it. I don't mean, obviously, that I studied Rush to figure out my positions on issues; I've been doing issues my whole life. I studied him to figure out how to do radio - how to talk about issues in a way that engages people, creates a community of the audience, makes them want to hear more, connect, join the club. Rush is wrong on almost everything, by my lights, but the lessons I took from him weren't about substance, but about craft. By my lights, no one is better at it.