First Limbaugh, then Santelli, now Cramer: Is Obama White House empowering its critics?

Team Obama is continuing to push back against critics on talk radio and cable TV, prompting some observers to wonder if the White House is instead giving the complaints a wider audience.

Conservative radio king Rush Limbaugh, who recently said he is hoping the president fails in his efforts to "restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation," took the first hits. Obama challenged House Republicans not to let Limbaugh, with a weekly audience of more than 13 million arch conservatives, direct their votes.

Today, the drumbeat continued. In an Op-Ed article in this morning's Washington Post titled "Minority Leader Limbaugh," former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe warned Republicans:

If the GOP sticks with its strategy of failure as the only option, further eroding its brand with the people who decide elections, we may find out what it means for a political party to hit rock bottom.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also weighed in this morning with a website mocking GOP leaders like Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele for first criticizing Limbaugh and then, in the face of an enormous brush back from his fans, apologizing. The website allows visitors to create their own apology to Limbaugh but offers this template:

You and I both know that in reality, you simply want President Obama to fail in this time of economic collapse. How can I disagree with that? Please accept my sincere apologies, oh great leader of the Republican Party.

The White House has also taken on on CNBC's Rick Santelli for slamming the president's mortgage relief plan. You may recall Santelli issued "the rant heard 'round the world" -- a huge viral hit -- about not wanting to bailout his greedy neighbors whose appetites were bigger than their wallets.

Now comes Jim Cramer, of CNBC's "Mad Money," blasting the White House for wanting to rob Wall Street to pay Main Street.

In slow motion, I felt the total lack of control that we all feel right now -- the ‘it’s out of my hands,’ the ‘where’s the authority,’ the, ‘Hey, it’s amateur hour at our darkest moment.’ It’s the feeling of capitalism vanishing, businesses capsizing under their own weight -- thanks to an administration that doesn’t seem to know or maybe doesn’t care.

Again White House press secretary Robert Gibbs shot back, with a droll mention that the mad man of Wall Street does not exactly have a Limbaugh-sized audience.

If you turn on a certain program, it's geared to a very small audience. No offense to my good friends, or friend at CNBC. But the president has to look out for the broader economy and the broader population.

Cramer, who last fall urged investors not to sell their Bear Stearns stock (which later tanked), was quick on the reply, accusing Obama of not understanding Wall Street.



MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Scarborough wondered today if the White House risks glorifying its critics by spotlighting their remarks.

Obviously the White House is calculating that in an age of 24/7 chatter, no administration can afford to let its critics keep mouthing off without a counter-attack.

What do you think?

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo: Associated Press

Comments

[AndyShep]

Limbaugh is the Republican Ralph Nader. Just like attention seeking fringe darling Nader crushed the Democrats chance for success against Bush, Limbaugh Crushed the Republicans chances for success against Obama. Limbaugh sabotaged McCain and will continue to sabotage future Republicans until he is sidelined.

[Mick]

Not addressing the lies and lunacy of the Republican pundits is not an alternative. President Obama has a nice feel for dealing with these boneheads. I trust his judgement and will support his decision how to handle these lies and half-truths. Who says Limbaugh is not the titular head of the GOP? Steele's kowtowing and backpedaling certainly proves it. And yes Limbaugh is the perfect strawman. He truly is a big fat idiot.

[Rubblebeam]

On financial matters I am a novice but it seems that their activity borders on the unAmerican. No bank bails out an obvious failure, no lenghty analysis convinces me otherwise, we seem to say better to be a hypocrite than live by the rules we preach.

[Harriet Clark]

You were elected by your honesty, strength and calmness let alone your knowledge. Just keep going.

We will owe you our lives when this is over.

[Ivan Ivanovich Renko]

Empowering? No.

The administration is simply calling them out for what they are.

[Freedom Eagle]

It's not empowering; it's a careful strategy of painting unpopular people and their opinions as the core of the opposition and giving them enough rope to hang themselves in the public eye.

They've already failed; that is proven everyday after the last eight years. Now the Democratic party is hammering that home to the public by pointing it out.

[Peter]

Why is it so impossible to disentangle the economic imperative of kick-starting the US recovery from the political dimension? Why does this have to be so vehemently politicized????????????????????????????????? Shame on the major networks for their political pandering in their coverage of this subject.

[Eric Bressler]

I think it's time for the White House to continue to smack these crack pots around. Making fun of these clowns is the easiest way to push them farther out on the fringes they currently inhabit.

[Rick Moore]

President Bush was the target of every kind of criticism, from liberal talk radio (such as it was), blogs, and of course, the mainstream media. How did he respond? He ignored it.

That's what grown-ups do.

[Garu]

Thou shalt not question the lord, thy god Obama. Thunderbolts shall cometh from the sky and smite all blasphemers and doubters dead. Obama is the state. The state is all. We all bow down to the dear leader, gracious lord Barack Hussein Obama.

[jgfox]

Jim Cramer never told anyone not to sell their Bear Stern stock. That's a falsehood wrapped in a lie.

I watched the clip several times. He told the caller that he did not have to move his stock portfolio from Bear Sterns since it is insured and will be covered if Bear goes down.

Get it right or don't write

[Nate]

I agree that such criticizm needs a reply of some sort.
It just needs to be more articulate than" Nuhuh, you big meanies!"

[Jared]

In an open and free discussion of the policies, it is becoming obvious that Mr. Gibbs is not up to the challenge of coherently defending his ideology or the ideology of the administration. I don't agree with his neo-socialist agenda, but I could defend it better than he. Sad. If that's the best you can do defending neo-socialism, Obama's free ride is going to be cut short sooner than Limbaugh could have hoped or dreamed. Now, that's change we can believe in. What the socialists don’t understand is that the sons of liberty have not disappeared. We’re just taking a term to clean out the closet redistributionist. Once they leave the conservative ship like the rats they are, we’ll come back stronger than ever. Then it’s bye-bye Mao, hello Franklin.

[lisa]

I see no evidence in this article of the White House 'empowering it's critics'. Sounds like the press secretary was responding to questions he was asked. I don't see any evidence in your article of the White House deliberately bringing up any of it's critics.

[Sissy Willis]

Nothing personal, but where Rush Limbaugh's concerned, "It's the demographics!" stupid, as Jonah Goldberg explained this morning:

"Just because the Democrats’ shtick is old and often dishonest doesn’t mean it’s tactically dumb. Limbaugh and other right-wing talkers are popular with a third of the country. Fairly or not, they turn off moderates and self-described independents (and, for the left, conservative talk radio is the font of all evil). Most politicians would prefer to have 70 percent of the public on their side at the cost of losing 30 percent, even if that requires being less than fair to the 30 percent."

[rob mendel]

‘Hey, it’s amateur hour at our darkest moment.’

Cramer's quote captures the sentiment of the nation and the world. Being an open-minded moderate that supported Obama, I am flat out disillusioned.

[fred fep]

The Republican Perty is a joke, and would disappear as the irrelevancy iy is if not for main stream media which props it up, and Fox News and talk show lunatics who keep it from disaolving in the pointlessness it now stands for. They have no ideas at all, they speak like children about Obama and rootiing for his failure, and almost all their cherished nonsense was totally disproven this past 8 years. Absolutely nothing is left to promote, so they have become a party of sore losers.

Attacking the drivel now leading them around by their noses, who cares, what's the difference, nothing can enpower them anymore, they hang on through big mouths who spout nonsense.

It is sad they have so many fans, but the fools, lemmings and sheep in society always exist. Attacking those that cater to and incite them, there is nothing wrong with it. This all shows how silly bi-partisan talk is when one side just wants to destroy you and nothing more.

[Young Atheart]

Booo-ya. Its brilliant for Obama to brand these characters as the face of the Republican Party. Older Americans who are counting on the stock market for retirement should not be following recycled stock recommendations from Cramer/Santelli who day trade in and out of the same securities. Nothing could do more to destroy the portfolio of the average investor.

On the other hand, they do also provide some useful fundamentals information for longer-term investing, ..but you can do much better from less emotional sources.

[Josh A.]

Sure Cramer's show isn't as popular as Hannity's or Limbaugh's. The problem is that Cramer is a lifelong democrat. He's always been OK with taxing the successful and going after overly greedy oil and corporate types.

Cramer just jumped off the Obama train. He had faith in the (now proven to be) lies Obama told during his campaign, and he was betrayed. He speaks for the hundred million moderate democrats, republicans and independents who believed in the rhetoric, but understand in their heart of hearts that the only cure for this is for goverment to get OUT of our wallets while WE, the resilient American people right our ship!

When a guy like Cramer ends up on a White House hit list, millions of Americans get scared. I wasn't scared before. Now I am.

[T. Jefferson]

If I were in the meda, I would love to be on team BO's hit-list. All the others fall into the "usefull idiots" category. They are following a rat down a rat hole.

Rush L. has a larger daily audience than CBS NBS and ABS, combined. His audience votes for him every day.

Ovomit is an irrelevant has-been in about 5 weeks. When Congress sees his disaproval ratings they are gone. That will happen on about April 15, when people get their 201(k) statements.

Can you spell Jimmy Carter?

[TaxPayer]

It is really amateur hour in the White House. Obama is making Jimmy Carter look like an economic genius.

Jim Cramer has been a life long democrat and former Obama supporter. Even he has had enough of this joke of a president. How much more wealth can Obama destroy before there is nothing left of this country. The Soviet Union could fund their communism through oil and gas sales to Western Europe. How does this idiot Obama and his incompetent staff plan on keeping his dream on a communist empire solvent?

[Rick Nelson]

Well, here we go again. The neo-socialists simply repeat over and over that the conservatives have no ideas. Nothing could be further from the truth. The most important idea is that the constitution is the basis that our country and Government operates upon. Integral to that is that you have the right to be secure in your own property and your own possessions. You earn it..it is yours. You have personal responsibility for you and your family. The government has no constitutional obligation or authority to re-distribute personal property or property--including income. It has been proven that when you penalize success you kill the main engine to social and economic success of a nation. France is a wonderful example of this.
Lowering everyone's taxes and decreasing federal spending is also a principle for conservatives. (just like your sacred cow JFK) (ohhhh that must hurt). What the neo-socilaists do not ever report is that revenues dramatically increase in logarithmic proportion to lessened tax burden. This is not speculation it is clearly born out by the actual numbers. Conservatives refer to these concrete numbers as facts.
Conservatives even support our country in a time of war even if we oppose it. Neo-socialists in the Iraq war were the number one cheerleader for the opposition. Even now, they desire to give the terrorists even more rights that American citizens.

I have decided that the only way to prevent the dramatic spiral to full socialism to a point that we would not even recognize this country 10 years from now is to cut off the money. So I am doing my part by making sure that I have no taxes for them. If only the top 2-5% join me, then we will be able to cut government out of all the areas that it has no business operating in. This movement can be anything from just dividing up our small businesses into multiple entities to just flat out refusal to go along with the oppressive redistribution of wealth. Yes, you could call it a revolt or peaceful disobedience. Neo-socialists would say "how dare you!" while at the same time will heap praises on Martin Luter King.

So conservatives do have ideas: a strong defense,
let people keep what they earn, keep the government out of our daily lives, free markets, and personal responsibility.

We also have a novel word for people with no down payment, bad or no credit, and purchased homes that they could not afford and are about to be forclosed on. That word is "renter".. They paid less in mortgages for these over-their-head homes than they would have paid in comparable home rent. Just a little factoid!

[Mister.Right]

1ST OFF

I don't know if it's a clever typo or on purpose
but

"Rush Limbaugh, who recently said he is hoping the president fails in his efforts to "restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation,"

I think you mean that "so capitalism and individual liberty ARE it's foundation"

Because that's what Rush wan't to perserve!!!

...............................

it's isn't so much that "Rush" wants "Obama" to fail!
As much.............
as it is that he's NOT sure "Obama" want's the country to succedd!!!

................................

And with Policies that will create a welfare class that will be dependant on Govt. Policy's that small business will have too foot the bill for as they find it harder to compete w/ large corporations some of which are funded by taxpayers now.

And a new State religion of Global warming and trillion's of tax payers money poured into it, to create the NewGreen economy.

And While Democrats go in reverse and instead of giving energy suppliers tax incentives and breaks to go "cleaner or green" they decide to use Cap & trade policys which will MORE THEN DOUBLE energy prices. And as result the energy suppliers will only transfer the price to us!

--------------------------------------

but hey;

YAY! @ :-) OBAMA IS GOING TO TRIPLE OIL, GAS AND COAL'S EMMISION TAXES................. LEAVING ALOT OF ELDERLY OUT IN THE COLD THAT CAN HARDLY PAY THEIR HEATING BILL AS IS

----------------------------------------
http://barelyliberated.blogspot.com

[Mr.RiGHT]

I think you mean that "so capitalism and individual liberty ARE it's foundation"

Because that's what Rush wan't to perserve!!!

...............................

it's isn't so much that "Rush" wants "Obama" to fail!
As much.............
as it is that he's NOT sure "Obama" want's the country to succedd!!!

................................

And with Policies that will create a welfare class that will be dependant on Govt. Policy's that small business will have too foot the bill for as they find it harder to compete w/ large corporations some of which are funded by taxpayers now.

And a new State religion of Global warming and trillion's of tax payers money poured into it, to create the NewGreen economy.

And While Democrats go in reverse and instead of giving energy suppliers tax incentives and breaks to go "cleaner or green" they decide to use Cap & trade policys which will MORE THEN DOUBLE energy prices. And as result the energy suppliers will only transfer the price to us!

--------------------------------------

but hey;

YAY! @ :-) OBAMA IS GOING TO TRIPLE OIL, GAS AND COAL'S EMMISION TAXES................. LEAVING ALOT OF ELDERLY OUT IN THE COLD THAT CAN HARDLY PAY THEIR HEATING BILL AS IS

----------------------------------------
http://barelyliberated.blogspot.com

[Peter Principle]

What do you think?

-- Johanna Neuman

I think you're a corporate GOP shill masquarading as a journalist, trying to invent a "controversy" where none exists.

Oh, but wait, Joe Scarborough said it so it must be true.