Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Politico:

Conservatives are despondent, liberals are as enthused about a presidential candidate as they’ve been in 40 years, and the candidate he has long loathed won the Republican nomination.

But never mind the pervasive sense of GOP malaise: Entering his 20th year on the national airwaves, Rush Limbaugh is having a dandy 2008 cycle.

Regardless of how many votes Limbaugh actually pushed into Hillary Rodham Clinton’s column with his mischief-making “Operation Chaos” plan to encourage his listeners to keep the Democratic primary going, the endeavor was a success in another important way. It reminded the mainstream media and others outside the conservative orbit of the following he commands.

And that the “drive-by media” he so delights in tweaking would recognize his influence enough to put his stunt on the front page, as The Washington Post did last week, underscored another essential fact about the right-wing talk show host: Limbaugh is one heck of a showman.

Even as the Internet supersedes radio, Limbaugh’s skills as a political provocateur, as much P.T. Barnum as conservative ideologue, are such that he can fuel buzz in the political-media world like few others.

In other words, Operation Chaos was good box office, and that may well have been the point.

“In my universe, there is no doubt it worked like a charm,” Limbaugh wrote to Politico in an interview conducted via e-mail last week. “My audience loved it, they participated in it, they had fun with it, as did I.”

Limbaugh said that the scheme has borne fruit for both him and Clinton going back to the Texas and Ohio contests March 5 and that its impact in Indiana last week was such that even Barack Obama’s campaign recognized it.

Indeed, an Obama spokesman sent two e-mails noting the “Limbaugh effect,” and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), an Obama surrogate, asserted on a conference call that Clinton had only won the state thanks to Limbaugh’s legion of Hoosier dittoheads.

Of course it would be in the Obama campaign’s interest to water down Clinton’s squeaker of an Indiana victory, but they weren’t the only ones to pick up on “Operation Chaos.”

In addition to the Post treatment, Limbaugh was mentioned repeatedly on cable news coverage of the Indiana and North Carolina contests and in Time’s new cover story by Joe Klein and, for awhile on Election Day, he led Mark Halperin’s The Page. Days before the primary, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Clinton about Limbaugh’s interest in her candidacy and she quipped: “He’s always had a crush on me.”

Limbaugh claims to care little about the surge in attention from the mainstream media.

“I don’t think my ‘profile’ needed elevation because it never waned with my audience and my audience is for whom I do my show,” Limbaugh wrote. “Not the MSM. So when the MSM decides to acknowledge my existence it doesn’t mean anything to me.”

Yet to listen to Limbaugh’s show is to hear him gleefully seize on any attention he draws from the dreaded drive-bys.

Opening his show Tuesday, he cut to the chase.

Reading from an e-mail he got, Limbaugh said: “ ‘Rush, you are the lead at Time Magazine.com. This is madness.’ ” So I went there, and it’s Mark Halperin’s blog, and there is a picture of me in a blue background with all kinds of stars surrounding my beautiful face and head. And the headline above this graphic is ‘Chaos?!’ with an exclamation point and a question mark, and it references this story that I’m holding here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. The Indianapolis Star today on its website is updating turnout and other aspects of the primary vote in Indiana today. And the headline of their 10:51 a.m. report was ‘Hardcore Republicans voting Democrat. And the Time Magazine blog says, ‘Listen to Limbaugh Crow About This at Noon Eastern.’ I think they have a link to my website.

For all his professed disinterest, the elite media attention confers a degree of validation on a self-made former disc jockey with no background in journalism or politics.

Further, said one media analyst, dominating the media conversation and being part of the news narrative is an essential element of success in the radio talk fest world.

“There’s a lot of self-referential business in the talk show game,” said Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. “These guys aren’t covering the news — they’re a personality interacting with the news. And they like to be in their own story.”

Citing the ongoing spat between Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly, Rosenstiel notes that feuding and setting up a nemesis, whether it be a rival figure or the media in general, is a boon for ratings.

“They have to be provocative to generate listenership,” he said.

Proving Rosenstiel’s point, Limbaugh argues that it’s not he who craves media attention but the other way around.

The real question, Limbaugh said is: “How many of the MSM hope I will mention something they said or wrote? Many of these outlets are losing circulation, ad revenue and audience. I am not. So, they love me mentioning them so that people know they exist.”

Beyond dispute is that many know Limbaugh exists. His weekly audience is estimated at about 13.5 million listeners, and his numbers spiked in the first three months of the year when campaign-related interest in politics was intense.

Moreover, his loyal followers haven’t abandoned him despite an at-times troubled personal life in which he’s battled addiction to painkillers and married three women.

Nor have they minded comments and bits that have approached and at times crossed the thin line between entertaining shtick and offensive insensitivity.

For all his game-playing in the Democratic contest, nowhere is Limbaugh’s impact felt more than in the conservative political world.

That the emergence and reemergence of Jeremiah Wright has been a gift for the GOP and John McCain is well understood. Less so is that it’s been a distraction not only for Obama but also a critically important one for McCain: It has distracted Limbaugh from his bad-mouthing of the GOP standard-bearer.

Even as McCain has consolidated Republican support since wrapping up the nomination, Limbaugh has continued as a persistent critic of a candidate he does not see as being part of the movement.

Wright, Operation Chaos and the continuing Democratic primary in general have diverted Limbaugh’s attention from shooting at McCain on a daily basis, and aides to the Arizona senator are glad to be out of the path of fire.

The Republican did draw the wrath of Rushbo, however, when he initially spoke out in strong terms against a North Carolina Republican Party ad that used footage of Wright in a television ad. But after much carping from Limbaugh and other conservatives and the party’s insistence on running the spot, McCain backed down, saying he wouldn’t play “referee” on such usage.

McCain once dismissed Limbaugh as an entertainer but, in his effort to unify the party, has taken a more careful tack recently.

“I respect Rush Limbaugh,” McCain said of his tormentor in January.

A top McCain aide, recognizing the importance of having Limbaugh inside the tent spitting out than the other way around, goes further.

“He’s incredibly influential,” the aide said of Limbaugh. “He has an ability to move a large amount of people to rise to your defense.”

“Our first outlet of defense on something like the New York Times story [suggesting McCain had an affair with a lobbyist] is through Limbaugh and talk radio. It’s the vehicle by which you defend yourself to the Republican base.”

This aide notes that Limbaugh had said some favorable things about McCain’s speech on judges last week, but recognizes that he probably won’t ever be a reliable ally.

“There are going to be things he agrees with us on and things he doesn’t agree with.”

Some in McCain’s wide orbit have a relationship with Limbaugh, however, and these intermediaries try to keep the lines of communication open.

For his part, Limbaugh scoffed at a question about whether his influence would wane should one of his least favorite Republicans win the White House and returned to his other most favored punching bag.

“If anything, my impact will increase with a McCain presidency,” Limbaugh said. “The question is whether the MSM’s impact will be lessened, which is slowly happening all around us. I will thrive as always.”

For now, though, he said he’s got another trick up his sleeve for the general election.

“One of my next objectives is to try and convince Republicans to cross over and vote for McCain down the road,” he quipped.