A Very Enlightening Political Discussion Including Limbaugh

Each night of the Global Conference a panel discussion is held during dinner.  The discussions are generally very interesting or entertaining, but last night's was especially so.  The panel discussion last night was an unlikely match of former Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, former Bush advisor Ed Gillespie, and...wait for it...GOP Chairman Rush Limbaugh.  Yes, Rush Limbaugh.

The discussion went as you would expect.  Ford was articulate, gracious, and very well prepared.  Brown was a typical politician, not wanting to answer specific questions, even straight forward ones with clear alternatives.  Gillespie spouted talking points and remarkably bragged about GWB's record with all the normal Fox Noise distortions about the war, economy, taxes.  You know the drill.  Limbaugh was classic Limbaugh.  Dismissive, rude, no substance, with the occasional flash of odd humor.  In an effort to keep the discussion from completely unraveling, all the participants resorted to an odd fist bumping routine whenever they thought they had made a point.

The discussion was "moderated" by Frank Luntz, who is one of the GOP's biggest propagandists.  I have to admit that Luntz did try to keep his bias in the background, though he failed at that much of the time.  He did it all in good humor and was pretty entertaining.  At the beginning of the session Luntz first asked the audience for a grade on Obama's first 100 days.  We had remote polling devices at the tables and the result was interesting.  Among this crowd heavily skewed towards business people, lawyers, bankers, and investors, the grades were:  A - 37%, B - 32%, C - 24%, D - 5%, F - 2%.  The answer surprised me based on some of the speakers and audience remarks I had heard earlier in the week that were severely critical of the President and the Democrats. 

Luntz then asked the same question of the panelists.  The answers were predictable.  The two Democrats said A, A-.  The two Repubs said D, D- (the lowest was Rush, of course).  Several things struck me about the ensuing argument...er, discussion:

• Limbaugh is truly deaf.  Most probably don't realize that or forget it when he is on television.  His hearing problem made him appear mechanical and aloof from the conversation.  Several times he had to ask Gillespie what was being said.
• Limbaugh was clearly uncomfortable in front of a crowd who had just voted by over 90% to give the new President passing marks.  His comfort zone is with adoring crowds screaming "Rush! Rush!" and leaping to their feet in applause at his every word.  That was not the case here, and it showed.
• Limbaugh truly has a well rehearsed schtick and is incapable of having a real conversation.  Most of the time he would just sit there, perhaps because he can't hear well.  He wouldn't speak until Luntz would cue him, and then he would just launch into one of his diatribes, often not really answering the question being discussed.  Luntz had to actually stop him several times in mid-riff, and once Limbaugh jumped to his feet as he railed.  His broad theme was that the government was established to "build the Democrat Party."  It was pretty asinine.
• Limbaugh, nor Gillespie, for that matter, would concede a single accomplishment of the President.  Nothing. Nada. Zero. No quarter.  They stuck to the talking points with lock step precision, often citing long debunked myths about both Obama and GWB.  The crowd generally responded with laughter, a few boos, and some applause by the hard cores.
• Limbaugh used the pejorative term "Democrat Party" 8 times by my count during his comments.

In the end, no ground was gained by either side, as you can imagine, with the exception of one concession Ford was able to extract.  He took apart Limbaugh's and Gillespie's talking points and actually gained advantage by hammering on their criticism of the President's stimulus plan.  He kept asking what they would do differently.  Limbaugh, of course, stupidly said he would do nothing and "let the free market" take care of things.  Gillespie then actually conceded that the spending had to be done, but that "he would do it differently."  That was it.  To his credit, Ford conceded several times that we weren't attacked for 7 years after 9/11, but pointed out that we are in decline in every other major area - economy, healthcare, employment, education.

It was surprising to me at first that someone like Limbaugh was given a spot on a prestigious panel like this.  Having thought about it, though, his presence was enlightening and really confirms that, as a party, the GOP really is bereft of ideas and leadership.  Limbaugh actually does speak for the hard core, which now totals less that 30% of the electorate.  Add Specter's defection yesterday and one could safely say that the GOP is badly in need of national leadership and reform.