Hypothesis: Why Limbaugh, Coulter et al are renouncing McCain

As has been reported widely, the right wing blowhards of talk radio & pundit television have been making a big stink about how John McCain is anathema. Some people who comment on this phenomenon attempt to explain it in terms of ideological disagreements between the candidate and said blowhards, or in terms of personal animosities arising from McCain’s prickly temper and his dissing of some of the lesser gods of the Republican pantheon, etc.

I think that’s a lot of baloney.

Coulter, Limbaugh et all are covering their asses, minimizing their losses, and laying the groundwork for the next 5 years of their careers. They have astutely divined that McCain will be the nominee & are betting that he’ll get clobbered in a landslide. When that happens, they can say “Don’t blame me! I told you so!”

And keep in mind that it’s pretty clear that a major recession is in the offing. The last thing they want is a Republican administration to follow Bush’s. They’re desperate for a Democratic administration upon whom they can serve the due-bills of W’s profligacy.

These people are entertainers first, last, and always. They’re in show business, not politics, and they make an awful lot of money and have an awful lot of influence. Bill Clinton’s presidency made their careers. Given their built-in audience of insecure, undereducated chumps and haters, Hillary-bashing is so easy to do that Rush can do it with one hand tied behind his back, and the other hand popping oxycodones into his mouth at a House-like rate. They dread another Clinton in the White House the way Br’er Rabbit dreaded the briar patch.

The only thing that threatens their place in the mediasphere is the absence of a credible foil. If a Democrat wins, they have one automatically. And in the unlikely event that McCain wins, they’ve got one too.