President Rush Limbaugh

What if instead of radio conservative talk show host becomes directly involved in politics.
What would history think of the Limbaugh Presidency?
 
I've always wondered that too: what if the extracongressional conservative movement heads took direct moves towards politics.

Of course, if he'd gone into politics at a much younger age, he would probably be a completely different person: just a charismatic (if ugly) Senator Limbaugh, with extreme rhetoric on some issues but so toned down by Washington consensus as to just fade into the background. (I mean, who's ever heard of Johnny Isakson?) Decades of political engagement serve to change a person.

But if he went directly into politics from his show, I think it'd be a lot like my Buchanan '96 TL, accessible here.
 
He was born in Missouri, and his grandfather served in the Missouri House of Representatives for a few years, so he doesn't seem all that unlikely. I'm going to assume a minimum of butterflies, as he'll fill his OTL niche for the most part, until the 1994 "Republican Revolution".

If he stays in Missouri and achieves radio success there rather than in California, I could see him riding a wave of demagoguery into winning John Danforth's Senate seat in 1994, instead of Ashcroft.

From there I think it's fairly straightforward that someone with as big of a mouth as Limbaugh can't win the Presidency on his own (Biden?). I could see him as a running-mate: a nod to conservatives in a hypothetical 1996 (less likely), 2000, or 2004 election if a moderate-to-liberal Republican gets the presidential ticket. From there you need one medical crisis or an election which simply cannot be lost (after a hypothetical two-term Republican presidency) to send him to the White House.

Slightly more plausible than I thought it would be. :eek::p
 
But what would this guys Presidency look like? I mean really, Iran would be crapping their pants, as would much of the rest of the world with this radical warhawk in power.
 
He would be similar to Bush on foreign policy i would imagine, but he would actually stand true fiscal conservative principles.

You're right though he would take at least as hard a line on radical states like Iran as Reagan was perhaps even more.

I of course really don't know and it would be largely possible that he would never have the effect on the process that he does not by being outside of it.

He would have made an extremely astute politician, I mean just imagine the sorta wrangling Congressional Democrats did last summer when they wanted to defund war in Iraq in a Limbaugh Presidency.
 
There is another problem here. Limbaugh had a drug dependency problem, and he would have been relieved of his duties (VP becomes acting president) until rehabilitated. He may have even been forced to step down.
 
But wasn't the drug dependency a result of his getting ear cancer? He became addicted to the pain killers that came after the surgery. So who knows if that, the cancer, would become an issue if he pursued a more political career instead of a talk-radio career.

If he SOMEHOW became president, which even he says he'll never do, I think he'd be somewhere between Bush and Reagan, with a possible more strict emphasis on conservative issues.

He'd probably not be too timid to respond to his critics either. Which would make things not so seemingly one-sided in the news media. ;)

But his overally effectiveness, and/or ability to make a possible difference, would be depending on who would be in control of the house or senate at the time.
 
he'd have to moderate his positions somewhat - or at least his rhetoric - in order to get anything done. Limbaugh can say anything he wants on the radio because he knows he'll never be called to account for them.
 

Ibn Warraq

Banned
Wrong, wrong, wong. He's just a conservative version of Al Franken. I would no more use the word "politician" to describe him than I would use the word "comedian" to describe Strom Thurmond.

Considering the fact that Al Franken may well be the next Senator from Minnesota you might want to choose a different example.
 
I'd ignored this thread because it sounded like flamebait, but here I am at lunch and, well... ^_^

Since it's apparently serious, I think a "President Limbaugh" with the above POD (joins in the GOP wave of 1994) would probably be OK. As pointed out, he wouldn't be tossing red meat to the pack of baying wolves on the radio, he'd tone down his rhetoric. And he's actually supported Democrats, even ones he hates, when did something he believes is best for the US (NAFTA).

So, in other words, he'd be a somewhat more effective and less polarizing President G.W. Bush.
 
In in addition to the drug addiction, he has a very thin skin. He couldn´t stand the heat and he get the hell out of the kitchen.
 
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