Rush issues a challenge

I haven't commented on the Dem's jihad against Rush Limbaugh, but this (from his show is an interesting gambit:

“If these guys are so impressed with themselves, and if they are so sure of their correctness, why doesn’t President Obama come on my show? . . . I am offering President Obama to come on this program — without staffers, without a TelePrompTer, without note cards — to debate me on the issues. . . . Just come on this program. Let’s have a little debate. You tell me how wrong I am and you can convince the rest of the Americans that don’t agree with you how wrong we all are. You’re a smart guy, Mr. President. You don’t need these hacks to front for you.”

This is brilliant in that there is no way that Obama would even consider debating Rush without a teleprompter or notes, Limbaugh's superior command of issues would be an embarrassment for the president (and, by extension, the country).

Obama is a superb orator, but only when reading prepared text. In spontaneous, uhh, situations he, uhh, doesn't have, uhh, quite the same, uhh, flair. Limbaugh speaks off the cuff for a living. It would just not be a fair fight.

But that's the genius of the whole thing. If Democrats want to point Limbaugh as the leader of the Republican Party (pretty ludicrous given how much he criticizes their actions...he's a conservative, not a Republican, folks), then they have to explain why the leader of their party is afraid to debate the leader of the opposing party. There is already talk of following the president around in chicken suits.

I was pretty sure that the strategy of attacking Limbaugh, cooked up by Paul Begala and team Obama along with leading journalists in October as it turns out, would ultimately backfire, I just wasn't sure how. But now I'm seeing that I'd like to be sitting on a warehouse full of chicken suits, I have a feeling that is an item that is going to do very well even in a recession.

UPDATE 3/7/09: I was asked why would Obama not refuse to debate Limbaugh, or just refuse to even address the subject, with the justification that Rush is just not significant enough for the president to waste time on.

But, you see, that would be an admission that the whole line of painting Limbaugh as the Republican leader is a lie.

It is true that he can avoid looking like a coward by admitting that they were liaring, but I'm not sure that helps. One way or the other it's hard to imagine this ending up doing anything other than empowering Rush and diminishing the president.