No Rush to Judgment

Rush and Hannity have had their egos bruised this primary season. The left wing talkers and writers have kind of reveled in it. See, neither Rush nor Hannity supported McCain. Rush has been quite vocal in his criticism of the senator. Yet McCain has apparently won the GOP nomination. Have Rush and Hannity lost their influence?

A few random thoughts come to mind.

One. Hannity has less viewers/listeners now that many of us have turned off Fox.

Two. Rush's big problem this time around was that he fell into a common Republican trap - he was all about 'against' and offered no 'for.' That is, he was against McCain but never came out in support of any of the other candidates. He apparently (I don't listen to Rush so I have to use the word apparently) was not even willing to say something like, "there are only two real conservatives in this race, (insert names), you'll have to make up your mind which you want to support...." Just being against ultimately is not a satisfying position.

Three. Rush and Hannity both lost their credibility early in the second term of W Bush. By then, they were solidly pro-Republican and especially pro-Bush administration rather than pro-conservative. This was their fatal error. They toted the water for Bush and the Republicans rather than give voice to their conservative listeners. So, after the Republicans were wiped out in the 2006 off-year elections, Rush woke up (Hannity didn't, he veered even further into 'neo-con' land by supporting Rudy). Rush tried to do a lot of back-fill and finally openly admitted that he had not done a good job staying true to conservative principles, to holding the Republican's feet to the fire when they moved away from those principles. But the damage was done. In my view, he hasn't had a voice since then.

Is part of 'change,' a change in conservative talk personalities? I think so.