Rush: Let's Ask the MSM Who Conservatives Should Pick in 2012

Rush Limbaugh on letting the media destroy Sarah Palin.

"You know, folks, we've already tried that route, now that I think about it. Calling the media, get Andrea Mitchell in here, we'll go and get Paul Krugman or Thomas Friedman, somebody in the New York Times, we'll get Chris Matthews in here, who else could we get? Take your pick, somebody from the Washington Post, go get Chris Cillizza, 'Who do you guys want? Who is it that we could nominate that you'll be the nicest to?' We've already done that. We've tried and that didn't work, either. We tried that 2008 with John McCain. See where that got us.
. . .
"I just can't get past this: 'Rush, the media has destroyed her. There's no hope. She's damaged goods, and average, ordinary people who are not even paying attention yet still think she's an absolute goof. We don't have a prayer. We gotta move on.' It just grates on me to acknowledge that kind of defeat. You may think it's just acknowledging reality, but it's defeat. 'Cause I was always under the impression here that one of our objectives is to not let the media do this to us.

"Now, I know that a lot of people think that they're the only ones who know what the media has done to Sarah Palin. But odds are if Vinny from Queens sees that the media has launched this search-and-destroy mission on her, a lot of other people probably have, too. At some point the media smear of anybody peaks. They either get 'em out of office or they don't. In Nixon's case, he was gone. But Palin is enjoying life. She's got this bus tour. That's why I said on Greta's show last night, 'Palin has learned to throw it right back at 'em.' You've heard the old adage, the best revenge is success. She's earning a good living. She's living life as she chooses, where she chooses. They are as angry that they haven't forced her into an insane asylum as anything else.

"At some point, folks, the smear of Palin has to peak. The smear of anybody has to peak. And the more people see her in relation to what they've heard from the media, the odds are more and more people are gonna realize they've been lied to. It's like when people meet me in person. Some of them are genuinely shocked. They're expecting me to be whatever they've heard the media portray me as. So at some point people are gonna realize the media has been lying about her. And I'm not making the case for it, because I don't know whether she's running. I'm not endorsing anybody right now. Vinny's not the first guy to say it, but when I hear people say, 'The media's destroyed her, Rush, we gotta move on,' it just bothers me. I thought that's what we're trying to prevent here along with many other things."
[emphasis added]

It's what happened both with Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 and George W. Bush in 2004 (and in the last year or so). The media lie was strong, but did not prevail.

H/T Josh Painter