Call him what you will … big fat bloviating gas bag or YOU-NAME-IT. Doesn’t change Limbaugh’s MESSAGE.

Rush Limbaugh is a leader. Period. J. Peter Freire - American Spectator

Since 1991, Limbaugh has had the most-listened-to radio show in the United States, with over 14 million listeners a week as of December 2008.

Speaking as an unabashedly Pro-Rush self-styled cocktail-party attending intellectualoid wannabe, or whatever you want to call it, I’m bewildered at the number of people misunderstanding of Rush’s role. Yes, he is an entertainer — you have to be to keep an audience for 3 hours every day — but he is also a leader in thought. This may make the more nuanced among the right uncomfortable, primarily because he doesn’t confer with anyone before making his thoughts known. He’s unpredictable. It is because Rush does not confer with others that he is a leader. It is because Rush is independent that he sets himself apart. In setting himself apart he also makes fun of those he disagrees with on radio, while maintaining distance from the process. And that last is both the cosmetic and the substantive charge against him. That it’s easy for the man behind the mic to rile people. Especially when he gets paid a lot of money to do it.

I’m not what you call a Dittohead, but I don’t disagree with Peter’s following assessment:

You may not want to designate him as your leader. But it is the pinnacle of ignorance to think that the most-listened to radio host in America is not a leader. He does play an important part in the movement, and denying that is placing him in the category of a crazy uncle. If we assess leaders by influence, Rush wins out over Steele any day.

If I was going to pick somebody to carry the Conservative banner … Rush would certainly be in the top half dozen.