Limbaugh: "The Base Has Fractured"
by Josh Gerstein
Wed, 30 Jan 2008 at 12:53 PM
A defensive Rush Limbaugh, one of Senator McCain's biggest detractors, just delivered what he called a "non-concession speech" in response to Mr. McCain's win in Florida Tuesday. "Yeah, it looks like McCain's pretty far down the line now to having wrapped this up," he said on his popular conservative radio show today.
At times, the talk host still seemed to have some fight in him. At other times, he seemed ready to move on. "There's going to be another election in 2012," Mr. Limbaugh said at one point.
"There's a lot of anxiety among a lot of conservatives about Senator McCain. It's simply indisputable,but there was no figure in our roster of candidates who rose up to challenge him or to galvanize conservative support. All the candidates on our side, for various reasons, are uninspiring or worse and so just as I predicted the base has fractured. Some going here. Some going there," Mr. Limbaugh said as he explained Mr. McCain's victory in Florida Tuesday night.
"Senator McCain has been able to cobble together enough votes to win in a few states. Fine. He deserves credit for that. But to pretend that Senator McCain is the choice of conservatives when exit poll data from every primary state show just the opposite--he is not the choice of conservatives as opposed to the Republican establishment, and that distinction is key," the conservative talker said. "The Republican establishment, which has long sought to rid the party of conservative influence since Reagan, is feeling a victory today as well as our friends in the media, but both are just far-fetched and wrong."
The talkmaster said Michael Huckabee was partly to blame for Mitt Romney not doing better. Mr. Limbuagh said Mr. Huckabee has "no traction.....He needs to get out."
Mr. Limbaugh warned the mainstream press not to interpret Tuesday's results as the demise of the Reagan movement. " The Reagan coalition is not breaking up," he said defensively. "The Reagan coalition is going in different directions because there isn't anybody from the Reagan coalition in the Republican roster of nominees.....Those of us in the Reagan coalition have not lost anything."
The talk radio host insisted that Mr. McCain is being supported by "a veritable list of the old country club blueblood establishment." That claim is debatable, since only 12 Republican senators have endorsed him and many others nurse grievances against him over his crusades against pork and in favor of tighter campaign finance and ethics laws.
At several points, Mr. Limbaugh said he thought few of his conservative listeners contributed to Mr. McCain's coalition Tuesday, which showed exit polls showed came largely from moderates, independents and even some self-described liberals. However, the talk host also seemed to allow that some listeners may have ignored him. "You still made up your minds yesterday," he said.
Related Topics: GOP Primary
Latest Politics Homepage
|
Print
Send
RSS
