RUSHBO - Grabbing Conservative Opinion by the Balls

“Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?”

This push poll question from the 2000 presidential election marked the low or high point - however you look at it - of the infamous Karl Rove style of campaigning – also known as gutter politics. 

George W. Bush’s chief strategist and his minions used the “poll” to suggest that the little, dark skinned girl next to McCain on the campaign trail was not his adopted daughter from Bangladesh, but a black child he fathered out of wedlock.

The poll struck a chord with South Carolina voters, effectively ending McCain’s first presidential run and handing the nomination to Bush. The rest is history.

But see, in the twisted world of Rove politics, that was then and this is now. Today, in 2008, John McCain is the Republican nominee and Karl Rove is out there pitching the story of McCain’s daughter with a “slightly” different angle. 

Luckily, he can count on guys like Sean Hannity, the Republican machine’s chief Cool-Aid drinker, to sell out his radio audience of 12.5 million weekly listeners. 

Listen to this nauseating clip of Karl Rove on the Sean Hannity Show (MP3)

A caller to Rush Limbaugh’s radio program yesterday made a “joke” about Barack Obama looking like Curious George, the monkey cartoon character.

Of coure Limbaugh thought that was hilarious. He started laughing, but had to acknowledge that he probably shouldn’t laugh about such an insult. Comparing an African American presidential candidate to a cartoon monkey must have even struck Limbaugh as a low blow. 

The incident took a rather bizarre twist though when Limbaugh later tried to completely distance himself from having bought into a racist joke by claiming that he didn’t even know who Curious George was!

Of course that defense is suspicious on at least two levels. First, how could you grow up in the US and not know the popular cartoon character Curious George?

Second, if you indeed don’t know who the heck Curious George is, why would you laugh at a joke comparing his looks to Obama’s?

Limbaugh’s explanation: He just wanted to be nice to the caller. Sure…..

Listen to the Curious George Joke on the Rush Limbaugh Show