Rush Limbaugh attacks Obama as "Odumbo"

Via Drudge, Rush Limbaugh is running tape from Barack Obama's appearance in New Hampshire in which Obama apparently complains to Maureen Dowd about a reference to his ears. Limbaugh's response was as constructive as you'd expect (Windows Media Player audio):

Obama up in New Hampshire being treated like a god making a speech. Now, apparently before he made the speech, Maureen Dowd had written something about his big ears. Obama, after the speech, made a beeline for Maureen Dowd who was in the audience to tell her that he didn't appreciate her writing about his big ears. Now, there's a lot of noise here and it's very muddy. I'll translate it for you, but here's how it sounded.

OBAMA: Talk about my ears. So I just want to put you on notice, I'm very sensitive about -- what I told them was I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears.

DOWD: We're just trying to toughen you up.

RUSH: "We're just trying to toughen you up." Here is what Barack Obama said. "Talk about my ears. So I just want to put you on notice, I'm very sensitive about -- what I told them was I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears." Now, there are many aspects of this, folks, that we need to delve into and explore. For one thing, I mean you know me, if the guy's sensitive about his big ears, we need to give him a new name, like Dumbo. But that doesn't quite get it. How about Barack Obama Hussein Odumbo. Well, if he's sensitive -- stop to think about this. This is a man being lauded as the savior of the country, a presidential candidate ready to be anointed, and he can't handle being teased about his big ears? He goes out to Maureen Dowd and says, I am putting you on notice? Is that a threat? I want to put you on notice?

The transcript on Limbaugh's site is accompanied by this classy graphic:

On the one hand, I can understand the sensitivity. But on the other, Limbaugh is right -- Obama is going to have to toughen up if he wants to be president. He can take solace in the lack that he doesn't give conservatives much to work with, as Isaac Chotiner noted on TNR's The Plank, but the onslaught is inevitable. Remember, Limbaugh attacked the mild-mannered Tom Daschle as "El Diablo." It's going to get a lot worse, unfortunately, than making fun of his ears...

Update 12/16 6:30 AM: A commenter is already referring to him as "Obama bin Laden," which I'm sure will become common among Free Republic types very soon:

I'd vote for Allen with a clear conscience and a cheerful heart. On the other hand--and I say this as a lifelong Republican--I will not vote for Giuliani, Romney, or any other East Coast lunatic-fringe liberal kook masquerading as a conservative. I see no difference between either of them and Hillary, Ted Kennedy, or Obama bin Laden when it comes to the issues that matter to me.

Update 12/17 10:44 AM: Media Matters Link: reports that some media figures say Obama was "teasing" Dowd or "joking" with her.

[Postscript: For more on Limbaugh, see our extensive coverage of him at Spinsanity.]

Comments

[Seth]

Excellence in Broadcasting indeed. Christ, You want to talk about big ears, has he seen Bush's?

[Pug]

This is the humor everyone is always saying Limbaugh uses. It's typical Limbaugh: Childish, bullying and mean. Pretty similar to his schtick about Michael J. Fox.

It's only funny if you are a die-hard hater of Democrats and "libruls". For example, Tom DeLay probably thinks it is hilarious.

[Jerry]

"But on the other, Limbaugh is right -- Obama is going to have to toughen up if he wants to be president."

Limbaugh is right?? Good grief, do you think maybe Obama was joking? That is the only way to deal with a clown like Dowd. First nonsense about his middle name, then Greenfield on his clothes, now Dowd and Limbaugh on his ears.

[AP]

Yeah, I agree with Jerry. You're meeting Limbaugh halfway here, which is more than he deserves. A three second fragment of a conversation (possibly out of context) is evidence that Obama needs to toughen up? Come on Brendan, I expect better.

[Jerry]

Yup here we go. Check this out

http://mediamatters.org/items/200612150012

Now Margret Carlson. Can Chris Matthews be far behind? Pretty soon we will have Obama is too sensitive just like Gore was always stretching the truth, invented the internet, etc, etc. And this is interesting too.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/9353.html

See comment 7.

[Jon]

Even more bizarrely, Limbaugh, in the course of talking about our alleged Public Enemy No. 1 currently holed up in Afghanistan, referred to this individual as -- and I am not joking -- "Osama bin Bama"