The White House’s coordinated attack on Rush Limbaugh is similar — not identical — but similar to what Senator McCain tried to do in the closing weeks of the campaign by making Keith Olbermann and MSNBC the target. It played well with some on our side, but in the end did nothing to help. Olbermann had this to say about it after McCain’s well received bit at the Al Smith dinner:

SNL and my Football Night In America show share adjoining studios, so upon my arrival yesterday, awaiting me was one of the cue cards from the bit, with Ben writing of the sketch: “Keith – Remember, a) I didn’t write this; b) it took years of study – fondly, Ben.”
As to the giddiness: Honestly, everybody deserves a laugh but if on the weekend before the presidential election they spent more than seven seconds bothering with ME, the campaign staff has even less of a clue than I thought.
Also, what’s this “about time” jazz? Since spring they’ve been trying to cajole, sweet-talk, bully, threaten, blackmail, and bribe everybody at NBC from the pages to the presidents to get the milquetoast coverage they want – especially to shut me down. Then McCain spoiled his otherwise impeccable performance at the Al Smith dinner with that angry-old-man bit about me. They have helped bury their own guy in the polls and helped me pass O’Reilly in the ratings. So, seriously, if they’d like to spend any part of the penultimate day talking about me I’ll send them all fruit baskets of gratitude.

The same is happening with Rush today. If Team Obama continues to target Rush, Rush wins. We’re already seeing it with the MSM reporting excerpts from Rush’s show that they never did before. For example, in USA Today there’s coverage of Rush’s challenge of President Obama to a debate.

So, if going after Rush helps Rush, why is Keith Olbermann continuing to do so on Countdown? It’s impossible to know for sure, but bashing Rush Limbaugh is also good for Keith Olbermann. Olbermann had his best night of ratings in quite some time on Tuesday night.