Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh is still playing the victim card in his failed attempt to buy a share of the St. Louis Rams. Rather than own up to his past racial comments, he blames his partners’ decision to drop him on the media’s contempt for conservatives (which, apparently, doesn’t extend to all the other NFL owners who are conservatives). Limbaugh wrote in a Wall Street Journal commentary that claims of racism are “being used to try to keep citizens who don’t share the left’s agenda from participating in the full array of opportunities this nation otherwise affords each of us.” He even likened criticism he received to attempts to smear Clarence Thomas when he was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court. “These intimidation tactics are working and spreading, and they are a cancer on our society,” Limbaugh wrote.
“President Obama’s brief display of drive-by compassion Thursday in New Orleans was, for me, by far the worst outing of his presidency thus far — and the biggest disappointment,” columnist Eugene Robinson wrote. He said that “it was strange and disheartening that Obama would wait nine months to make his first visit to New Orleans as president. It was stunning that he would spend only a few hours on the ground and that he wouldn’t set foot in Mississippi or Alabama at all. But worst of all was the way he seemed to dismiss the idea that his administration could and should be doing much more.”
“Markets may be troubled, but that’s no reason to stop teaching our children. Yet that’s exactly what we’re doing,” wrote columnist Paul Krugman, noting that 29,000 jobs in state and local education were among the 273,000 jobs lost nationally last month. He blasted centrist senators for having trimmed from the stimulus bill more state aid that might have mitigated public education cuts, and he called on Congress to approve more aid for state government now. “Beyond that,” Krugman concluded, “we need to wake up and realize that one of the keys to our nation’s historic success is now a wasting asset. Education made America great; neglect of education can reverse the process.”
“President Obama won another Nobel Prize today, this time in medicine, for pretending to give up smoking.” — Jay Leno
“The Nobel committee is saying the reason they gave Obama the peace prize is for reducing tension around the world. So, the runners-up for this year’s Nobel Prize were red wine and the Brookstone three-speed massaging recliner.” — Conan O’Brien
“Sarah Palin’s memoir will be out next month. Revelations in the memoir. The last couple of months on the campaign, it was actually Tina Fey.” — David Letterman
“One of the top-selling costumes this Halloween is a vampire version of President Obama called ‘Barackula.’. . . Not so popular: ‘Congressman Barney Frankenstein.’” — O’Brien
“President Obama wants to send $250 checks to over 57 million American seniors. When he heard the news, John McCain was like, ‘Forget everything I said. This guy’s awesome!’” — Jimmy Fallon
