Sometimes,You can be just too clever

I never understood why Obama brought Rush Limbaugh into the forefront of who the Republicans should not listen to. Then, when Rush announced that he hoped that Obama fails, the media ran wild with it. Never mind, that if you listen to what he actually said, he wanted Obama's policies to fail, not the country. But for many on the Left, politics is the personal, which is probably why they don't see their own hypocrisy during the Bush years when they labeled him a failure and his policies disastrous. And that was just because he was a Republican, not even a conservative.
But the Obama administration's efforts to keep bringing up Limbaugh puzzled me somewhat. If you don't agree with him, ignore him. But then, I came to find out that there is actually a concerted strategy to paint Limbaugh as the face of Republicans. Apparently,polling shows that Limbaugh is unfavorably received by younger voters. Okay, that seems reasonably smart. Except for one thing. Rush is not a passive person who is willing to be the foil that the Democrats lack. In fact, he is challenging Obama to a one on one debate. No cue cards, teleprompters,aides whispering from behind, absolutely nothing but Obama's powerful intellect. A part of what is on his website:

But I have an idea. 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? We will do a one-on-one debate of ideas and policies. Now, his people in this Politico story, it’s on the record. They’re claiming they wanted me all along. They wanted me to be the focus of attention. So let’s have the debate! I am offering President Obama to come on this program — without staffers, without a TelePrompTer, without note cards — to debate me on the issues. Let’s talk about free markets versus government control. Let’s talk about nationalizing health care and raising taxes on small business.

Let’s talk about the New Deal versus Reaganomics. Let’s talk about closing Guantanamo Bay, and let’s talk about sending $900 million to Hamas. Let’s talk about illegal immigration and the lawlessness on the borders. Let’s talk about massive deficits and the destroying of opportunities of future generations. Let’s talk about ACORN, community agitators, and the unions that represent the government employees which pour millions of dollars into your campaign, President Obama. Let’s talk about your elimination of school choice for minority students in the District of Columbia. Let’s talk about your efforts to further reduce domestic drilling and refining of oil. Let’s talk about your stock market. By the way, Mr. President, I want to help. Yesterday you said you looked at the stock market as no different than a tracking poll that goes up and down.

There’s no “up and down” here. We have a plunge. The president yesterday suggested “we’re getting to the point where profits and earnings ratios are approaching that point where you want to invest.” Uh, Mr. President? There is no “profits and earnings” ratio. It’s “price and earnings” ratio. He’s the president of the United States. He doesn’t know anything about the stock market. He’s admitted it before. Let’s talk about it anyway. You want to maintain it’s a tracking poll? I’d love to talk to you about that. Let’s talk about all of these things, Mr. President. Let’s go ahead and have a debate on this show. No limits. Now that your handlers are praising themselves for promoting me as the head of a political party — they think that’s a great thing — then it should be a no-brainer for you to further advance this strategy by debating me on the issues and on the merits, and wipe me out once and for all!

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 American 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. You’ve debated the best! You’ve debated Hillary Clinton. You’ve debated John Edwards. You’ve debated Joe Biden. You’ve debated Dennis Kucinich. You’ve debated the best out there. You are one of the most gifted public speakers of our age. I would think, Mr. President, you would jump at this opportunity. Don’t send lightweights like Begala and Carville to do your bidding — and forget about the ballerina, Emanuel. He’s got things to do in his office. These people, compared to you, Mr. President, are rhetorical chum.

By elevating Rush to be the face of Republicans, how can Obama not accept? If he refuses to debate the man that he helped to elevate to public enemy number one, then is it because he's afraid? He can't pretend that Limbaugh is just a commentator, since he took him on first.
Sometimes, all of these smart people sure do seem dumb.

UPDATE From Scrappleface:

Obama to Drop Shield if Russia Helps with Limbaugh
by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace · 17 Comments

(2009-03-05) — President Barack Obama has reportedly written another private note to his Russian counterpart offering to halt deployment of a defensive nuclear missile shield in Europe, this time in exchange for Russia’s help in dealing with U.S. talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh.

The White House immediately denied the existence of the letter to President Dmitry Medvedev, but acknowledged “ongoing internal deliberations over a measured response using all the tools of U.S. power, including diplomacy.”

Dealing with Mr. Limbaugh has taken the Obama administration’s focus off of other global trouble spots like North Korea, Iran and Chicago.

The rift between President Obama and Mr. Limbaugh started in October when the radio kingpin said of Mr. Obama “I hope he fails.” Tension escalated when Democrat pollsters discovered that Rush Limbaugh is the only remaining divisive Republican with name recognition higher than 10 percent.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, during his daily review of cable TV and radio personalities, said that President Obama won election, in part, “on a promise to be more inclusive, to talk with enemies, and to present an American face to the world that is more about dialogue and multilateral solutions than confrontation.”

“If President Obama intends to find common ground with the Mullahs in Iran,” said Mr. Gibbs, “He can certainly find a way to appease Rush Limbaugh.”

An unnamed State Department source said that when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton returns from the Middle East, the president will “dispatch her to Florida to engage Limbaugh in high-level talks to keep this situation from mushrooming.”

The State Department also released its standard diplomatic response statement, which covers everything from nuclear weapons deployment by hostile regimes, to Israeli destruction of houses in Palestinian ’settlements’, calling Mr. Limbaugh’s remarks “unhelpful.”