Ron Reagan Jr. took exception to Rush Limbaugh criticizing Mitt Romney’s
comment that he wasn’t willing to say “incendiary things” to fire up
the base, as the MSNBC contributor lectured: “Rush ought to know about
incendiary rhetoric...he’s the one who is race baiting all the time on the radio.”
Invited on MSNBC’s Wednesday morning programming to discuss the GOP
primary race, Reagan took the shot at the conservative talk radio host
after MSNBC host Thomas Roberts played a clip from Limbaugh’s radio
show.
The following exchange was aired during MSNBC’s live programming on February 29:
[11:36am EST]
THOMAS ROBERTS: Ron, I do want to play you something, though, that Rush
Limbaugh had to say about Mitt Romney. Get your thoughts on the other
side. Take a listen.
RON REAGAN JR.: Okay.
(Begin clip)
RUSH LIMBAUGH: So, Romney is not willing to say “incendiary things,”
quote, unquote about Obama to excite the base. Well, what does he say?
‘Nice guy, just in over his head.” What does this tell you that Romney
thinks of the base? That it takes incendiary comments to turn you on.
(End clip)
ROBERTS: So, Ron, as we listen to that, is Romney’s biggest problem
that he is not on fire enough? That he’s too cold? I mean what, what
Rush Limbaugh is saying there is basically that he is discounting the
base? That it takes that type of language or that type of rhetoric to
fire them up? So which one is it, too hot? Too cold?
REAGAN: Well I think probably too cold. I mean, Rush ought to know
about incendiary rhetoric. He’s, he’s the one who is race baiting all
the time on the radio, and, you know, incendiary rhetoric doesn’t seem
to have put Rick Santorum over the top either. I mean there he is
talking about throwing up on the First Amendment of the Constitution,
and how sending, wanting to send one of your kids to college is
snobbery. That’s pretty incendiary rhetoric. Newt Gingrich accused the
President of infanticide. I don’t know how you could get more incendiary
than that. But it didn’t seem to carry the day for them. Romney’s
problem isn’t that he’s not incendiary. Romney’s problem is that he’s
inauthentic, and everybody sees that. Everybody sees, Republicans,
independents, Democrats, that this is a man who only stands for a sense
of his own inevitability. He doesn’t seem to have any other principles.
That’s Romney's problem.
-- Geoffrey Dickens is the Deputy Research Director at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Geoffrey Dickens on Twitter.
