I want to say up front that I do not believe that Rush Limbaugh is stupid. You don't get as far as he has if you're stupid. He may be uncharitable, narrow-minded, bigoted, sexist, and downright wrong most of the time, but he isn't stupid. I wouldn't call him the smartest person in the world, either, despite his own press. But he's not dumb.

 

What he is, though, is deeply invested in several different oddball concepts. And beholden to talk for several hours a day about whatever crosses his mind. This combination of a punishing news cycle and the outlook of a paranoid conspiracy theorist can have some pretty hilarious results. 

 

In the latest example of this accidental performance art, Limbaugh attacked the news that President Obama is sending troops to Uganda to help in the fight against the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA calls itself "Christian," but it's more relevant to note that it is a death cult led by a madman who has been responsible for killing 12,000 civilians (and counting.)

 

To quote Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch, the LRA "often descends on a remote village, slaughters every adult in sight, and then kidnaps the children, some shockingly young -- the boys to become soldiers slinging AK-47s, the girls to serve as "bush wives."" 

 

But instead of even questioning why we might be sending troops to Uganda, without even questioning the LRA's own stated mission (oh please), Rush Limbaugh instead puts forth that the LRA is Christian, and Ugandans are Muslim, and that President Barack Hussein Obama (Rush is always careful to include his middle name) is sending American military troops out there to slaughter Christians.

 

I can only imagine the number of crusty great uncles who slammed their fists on the table when they heard this. And doesn't everyone have a great aunt who would be clutching her pearls over this news?

 

I have no doubt that "Obama used our military to kill Christians" is what will stick in their minds. Not the retraction, which Rush himself issued just a few minutes later, harrumphing that he would have to look into claims that the LRA "is being accused of really bad stuff."

 

And will Rush follow up on his promise to research this and get back to us with his results? Of course not. It will fall into Rush's memory hole just like every other stupid thing he's said. He will never mention it again, I guarantee it - but the damage is already done. Which, as far as Rush is concerned, is pretty much a win-win situation.