[proud American in Canada]

"Did you hear John Kerry's tasteless, classless line about this in the debate last night? What a loser"

no, what was it? I'm posting before I've read the whole thread... but my first thought is, typical of a Democrat.

And, like I said, I'm jumping in without looking at the whole thread, but apparently Rush admitted he's addicted to painkillers. Okay, fine. To me, that changes nothing. Nothing at all.

I can't think of anyone who has been such an amazing, galvanizing force for conservatism. He made people "all across the fruited plain" realize that there were others who felt and thought the same way.

Think about it-- after a couple of decades of the constant pro-Democrat bias of the media, all throughout the 60's and 70's and into the 80's--people were told by the major broadcasters that:

Vietnam/U.S. military = bad
Ever more government spending (the War on Poverty) = good
Freedom of expression is the highest value; patriots who disagree with flag burning are neanderthals (sp?) who don't understand correct thinking
etc.--I'm sure Freepers can provide more examples.

People all across the country were fed this message (and still are), and so they felt vaguely guilty about their conservatism.

Rush Limbaugh (and of course, first, Ronald Reagan), changed that. Rush Limbaugh's name will be writ large in the history of our country. He formed a community, a national community, bound by common beliefs.

He was, and is, a momumental force in conservatism.

Yes, he's a human being and apparently has a substance abuse problem. But somehow I doubt that the tens of thousands of people reading and posting to this forum are all "addiction-free."

God bless you Rush. You were my only source of information when I first moved to Canada in early fall 2000 and I hungered for news about the Florida election disaster.

For me, this incident changes nothing in my opinion of him. I'm still grateful every day he's on the air, even though I can't really get him up here unless I'm in my car and even though I'm a teensy weensy bit ticked off that I now have to subscribe to 24/7 to listen to the Internet feed... ;-)

[DennisR]

Here is how I remember it: at a Town Hall kind of meeting last night (October 9), Kerry said something like, "If you want better health care in this country, you have two choices: talk to Rush Limbaugh's housekeeper or vote for me for President." Many in the audience (most likely full of Ds), of course, laughed and clapped enthusiastically.

The Ds never cease to amaze me at how compassionate they are!