The Limbaugh Brand

By Mark Blumenthal
Pollster.com

Do you think this week's back-and-forth between the Obama administration and Rush Limbaugh is an accident? Or did the Democrats welcome an opportunity to make the conservative talk radio host the symbol of opposition to Obama's stimulus proposal? A look at what little polling data exists on Limbaugh says that accident or not, Democratic strategists are probably happy to see Limbaugh's profile rise.

Let's go back to the beginning. On Friday, January 16, used his radio program to declare, "I hope Obama fails."

A week later, last Friday, in the midst of a private meeting, Obama urged Republican leaders on Capitol Hill to ignore Limbaugh saying, "you can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."

Then this Monday morning, the topic came up in the of the daily White House press briefing. As Chris Cillizza reported,

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs offered another sly provocation of Limbaugh; asked to expand on Obama's comments about the talk show host, Gibbs demurred and then added: "Tell [Rush] I said hi."

This week, Limbaugh has happily engaged on the topic, both on the air and in a Wall Street Journal op-ed yesterday. Americans United For Change, a Labor backed group, is now running radio advertisements in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada repeating Limbaugh's "I hope he fails," pointing out that "every Republican voted with Limbaugh" and asking whether "our Senator, ____, will side with Limbaugh too."

For much of the week, the Obama-Limbaugh fued has been a prime topic of conversation on the cable news networks, with much speculation that Obama erred in mentioning Limbaugh by name last Friday. Was it?

(See results here.)