Media Fueling, Relishing McCain, Limbaugh Flap

PUMPING IT UP

MSM Exaggerating Rush, McCain Flap For Fun And Profit





*** UPDATES BELOW ***


Though Rush Limbaugh certainly isn't supporting John McCain for president, the talk titan is speaking out against media portrayals of a conflict he believes has been greatly overplayed by the mainstream media.

He does believe, however, that the Arizona senator has wrongly manipulated former Senator Bob Dole. More on that in a moment.

Much like the mega- hype present before a Super Bowl or major boxing match, the mainstream media has been fueling the Rush - McCain fire for several weeks, most likely for fun and profit.

Yesterday, for example, just about everyone had been led to believe that Dole had scolded Limbaugh in a letter written on McCain's behalf, but Rush took to the airwaves today to pour cold water on that notion, saying Dole didn't even indicate he was endorsing the Arizona senator.

Further, Rush thought it was a private message and was therefore surprised to see the issue become a public matter.

After hearing about the note, Mitt Romney lashed out at McCain's political maneuver, saying Dole "is the last person I would want to write a letter for me. McCain's campaign is a lot like Bob's campaign was," according to USA Today. But the former Bay State governor later clarified his remarks.

In response, McCain was said to be furious with Romney, which Limbaugh also addressed in detail on today's program:

RUSH: Well, this did not sit well with Senator McCain, who had tried, his camp had tried to pass this Dole letter off to me as an endorsement, which it was not. So on Joe Scarborough's show today on MSNBC, it's called Morning Joe, they played this bite from an upcoming report on Senator McCain.

MCCAIN: The fact that someone asked Governor Romney about the letter that Bob Dole wrote on my behalf to Rush Limbaugh, and he said that would be the last person he would want writing a letter on his behalf. Governor Romney disparaging an American hero, our leader, our nominee for president of the United States, that's disgraceful. I think Governor Romney should apologize to Bob Dole for that comment. He's a great American, and for Governor Romney, who has never had any military experience to disparage the service and courage of an American hero I think is disgraceful.

RUSH: I'm sorry, Senator McCain, I think what you are doing here is disgraceful. How in the world is what Governor Romney said a nasty attack on a veteran? What your campaign is doing, Senator McCain, is manipulating Bob Dole, a war hero, by the way, a war hero, Senator McCain, who never talked about it. My father was a war hero in World War II. So was his friend Jim Kinder. Both have passed away. They would not talk about what they did in World War II to their kids, Senator McCain. They didn't parade it around, and neither did Bob Dole. Senator McCain, you are parading it around. Bob Dole is being manipulated by your campaign. The leaking of this letter to the liberal media with a dishonest spin speaks to the insecurity of the McCain camp. Why all the attention to me, folks? Why the manipulation of a personal correspondence, why the manipulation of the media, including Fox News late yesterday afternoon right before seven o'clock with the McCain talking points about Dole scolding me and saying enough is enough.

In the first place, Senator Dole is a gentleman, and he doesn't behave that way. The letter that he sent me was not a scold in any way, shape, manner, or form. If the people in the media had just read the letter, they would have seen that it was respectful; they would have seen that it was gracious. They would have seen he was talking about after the primaries. He was talking about the general election, Senator Dole was. He had no candidate. The letter did not say that he did have candidate. Last night on Hannity & Colmes he was asked point-blank by Alan Colmes, "Who's your guy?" He said, (paraphrasing) "I don't have a dog in this race. Well, I don't want to call them dogs, they're candidates." And so the assumption was all over the place that Senator Dole was another one of those endorsing Senator McCain and the McCain camp put that out. It's not the case, and we have it from Senator Dole's own mouth last night on television.

Now, this shows you just how willing the media are to be manipulated by McCain and they are invested in his campaign and how the McCain camp is unscrupulous to take a private note, lie about its contents, leak it to the media, is not the way you treat a World War II war hero, a former Republican leader, and a wholly decent guy like Bob Dole. Romney's not abusing Dole here in his comment. He's stating the obvious. The obvious is that Dole ran a poor campaign in 1996, he was badly beaten by a Clinton, just as some of us think a McCain campaign would be badly beaten by another Clinton. But since I was the subject of this dirty little trick by the McCain campaign, I want people to understand how this all happened in the first place. I'm going to tell you what's happening here, folks. Senator McCain is resorting to the same kind of politics as Hillary Clinton. Every challenge to Senator McCain is said to be a challenge to his military record or somebody else's military record. Hillary uses her gender the same way. If you question Senator McCain, you're questioning the military. If you question Senator Clinton, you're questioning women. Senator McCain feigns outrage over the slightest challenge.

Nobody questioned Bob Dole's military record, nobody attacked Bob Dole personally, and certainly not Mitt Romney. Senator Dole ran a bad campaign, got his clock cleaned. A number of us think the same thing is likely to happen with the same scenario, somebody who's owed this because of his service, somebody with a great military record. Ask John Kerry how much a great military record helps you in a presidential race and ask Bob Dole how much it helps you. And again, Senator Dole did not endorse McCain, which McCain's camp has put out there.


Dole did not scold me, which McCain has also put out there. Dole's letter was private, which McCain also put out. I'm thinking back, I'm not that old in relative terms, but I don't think even Nixon pulled this kind of stunt, twisting statements, putting out lies like this, the attack on Romney, which he claimed Romney wanted a time certain for withdrawal from Iraq, when Romney has never supported that. It's a big lie strategy. You make an outrageous statement, demonstrably false, you hope your friends in the media keep repeating it for you, that way the lie becomes a fact, or so it seems.

How all of this will work out for McCain and Romney won't be known until tomorrow. Until then, Limbaugh has made it clear his own fortunes do not depend on the outcome of elections:

RUSH: And once again, even after all this time I spent on this yesterday, and after all the detail I gave Howard Kurtz and the Washington Post today, and he reported most of it verbatim -- maybe I should read some of those quotes I gave Kurtz in case you haven't read the story. But after all of that, they still don't get how I measure my success. Wolf, you're talking about Bill Kristol and David Brooks and Fred Barnes and these people that are conservative pundits in the Beltway, that's how they define their success. Who wins elections and who implements the policy ideas they have. I do not measure my success by who wins elections. My success doesn't depend on that, as has been evidenced by the last 20 years. They're never going to get it. I should stop trying to beat my head against the wall so that they do. It's best to remain a dirty little secret, to them.

Meanwhile, the media would rather make fun of Romney's hair than take a substantive look at where he stands on the issues.


UPDATE: The HuffPo folks are really, really enjoying this

UPDATE: bloggers say Rush has endorsed Romney

UPDATE: Rush is officially psychic, as this has already occurred:

RUSH: I want to advise you people in the Central, Mountain, and Western time zones of something that's going to happen tonight as you turn on your tubes and your TVs to watch election returns on Super Tuesday. Senator McCain is most likely going to win a lot of the early winner take all states in the East. The Drive-By Media will play this up as big as you have seen anything played up. "McCain sweeping to victory tonight in the East, look at what's happening here, Tim." "Yes, Tom, we see this as a -- why, this is a repudiation of all these people." They're going to try to make these eastern states sound like it is over.

And you people in the Midwest and in the Central time zone, Mountain time zone, Pacific time zone, do not be affected by this, because the purpose of the Drive-Bys will be to suppress the vote in later closing states, especially in the West, where it's looking good or very close for Romney in California. It's looking good for Romney in Georgia as well. So, folks, I'm telling you, if you're going to watch this stuff tonight, put a sign under your TV: "Media Trying To Manipulate Me Into Not Voting." Don't listen to them. Remind yourself because that's exactly what's going to happen.

UPDATE: WaPo liberals thrilled with McCain victories

NOT so fast, Mr McCain

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