Rush's Weight Loss Stuns Mainstream Media Enemies

THE THIN-BAUGH MENACE

Rush's Diet Forces Left To Cook Up Fresh Insults







To our "progressive" friends, what's more dangerous than good ol' Rush Limbaugh? How about a thin Rush Limbaugh.

After years of grade-school level taunts directed at the talk titan's weight, El Rushbo has taken their key "issue" off of the table. Of course, that won't stop the smear merchants completely, but it does undermine what little credibility they previously had.

Ignoring the news, for example, Time Magazine's Kurt Andersen was still exploring "why Rush is fat" in a piece dated August 3.

Suddenly placed in a difficult position, however, the broader mainstream media has managed to maintain a negative focus on Limbaugh by denouncing his diet. How's that for spin?

Dangerously overweight Rush has now become dangerously thin Rush. Don't try his diet at home, they warn, it'll kill you!


While ABC appeared to be in charge of disseminating the anti-Rush talking points, (lean Limbaugh - is it safe?) some local news outlets added their own versions. From KTRE-TV 9 in Texas:

East Texans say Rush Limbaugh's diet isn't healthy


By Holley Nees

LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) - There's always a new diet out there, but this one has an outspoken radio talk show host talking it up after loosing quite a bit of weight.

Rush limbaugh doesn't let much slide, but now, he's letting go of his weight.

Limbaugh is reportedly 90 pounds lighter after only six months on a diet that combines a low-calorie diet with office visits and supplements.

A way that one East Texas dietician said is not practical.

"Diets that promote rapid weight loss I don't recommend because for one thing, we don't gain weight rapidly," said Dietician at Memorial Health System of East Texas Tim Scallon. "If we gain weight gradually why should we expect to lose weight rapidly."

None of this has escaped Limbaugh's attention. Though he's been talking about the diet for weeks during his program, the sudden mainstream media attention had him baffled:

RUSH: All right. So I don't know what I'm doing. In fact, I cannot do what I've done. I didn't really lose the weight -- and, by the way, it's 80 pounds. Now, that's five months times 30 average days in a month. Five times 30 is 150 rebuke right? Eighty pounds in 150 days is not a pound a day. What I said was, "Up until about 30 it was pretty close to a pound a day," and I was amazed by it.

So I can't do it what I've done. What I've done that I can't do won't work -- and even if it does work, it won't last 'cause I'm going to not exercise enough to satisfy Dr. Savard. And so I'm going to regain the weight. It's just automatic. This also came up on The View today. Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd and Joy Behar have this exchange about the diet.

GOLDBERG: Rush has dropped 90 pounds in less than six months thanks to the Florida-based Quick Weight Loss Centers. That's a short amount of time to lose that much weight.

SHEPHERD: He's taking appetite suppressants.

BEHARD: Yeah, which are dangerous. It screws you up.

GOLDBERG: Looks good.

SHEPHERD: Thing is you don't keep that weight off.

RUSH: Not taking appetite suppressants. But anyway, there you have it. They wish I was dead anyway! All these people wish I was dead anyway so why aren't they celebrating here? I'm going to die! I'm starving! I'm not going to be able to keep the weight off. I'm engaging in terrific health risks here -- and since they all do want me dead I think it maybe would be good if they were just happy about all this. As I say, folks, it kinda... In all seriousness here, these people... I'm going to be repetitive. These people, whoever they are -- be they in the media, be they in the medical community -- are really focused on obesity how much it's costing us health care-wise how unhealthy it is. They're out there urging people to do something about it and then when somebody like me goes out and does something about it, "Bah, it won't work! He won't keep it off. It don't work, that diet!"

They say that about every diet. I have yet to hear a medical person on television tell me the diet that works. I hear 'em say, "Well, reduce your calories and exercise." Well, I'm doing half of that, and it's not like I'm sitting around vegging. (laughing) At any rate, what bothers me about this is that these poor people at Quick Weight Loss Centers are having their diet maligned and I just want to reiterate to you -- and I'm not being paid for this. This is one of the reasons I didn't mention this at all during the whole process of being on the diet was that I didn't want to have any official tie-in, and I don't. I'm just telling you -- and I've done every diet that there is. I have done every diet there is. I'm 58 years old. This is the first diet that I have not felt deprived, have not felt sorry for myself because I feel like I'm in denial because I've been satisfied. I've lost weight faster than I ever have at age 58, and I think it's probably the healthiest I have been eating in years.

A thin Rush Limbaugh takes a key element of demonization away from the left, causing a shift in their longtime smear narrative. That they were so quickly able to twist the issue shows just how threatening a more appealing El Rushbo could be to their cause.


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