And not just because he still has that microphone. Democracy Corps–the same folks who determined last fall that Rush would make such an excellent political villain–have a new poll out demonstrating that Rush is just as polarizing as you would think. His favorability split is 26/53, which means you can bet we’ll continue see more anti-Rush ads in the Washington media market.
Contrary to the Democracy Corps analysis of these numbers, I’m not sure Republicans need to worry that much about Rush Limbaugh’s negative ratings. What they do need to worry about are their own. The Democracy Corps poll shows “Republicans in Congress” with a 30/41 split, compared to 42/37 for the Democratic majority and 59/27 for Obama. By the same token, it seems that Democratic money could be put to better use building support for a policy agenda rather than demonizing a guy as the face of an already incredibly unpopular political party.
On the upside for Rush, at least people know who he is. The poll also tested favorability numbers for Keith Olbermann: 15% positive, 20% negative; 65% never heard of the guy.