Ed Schultz Gushes About Obama Speech to Students -- and Quickly Contradicts Core Obama Message

September 9th, 2009 9:13 PM

The specter of ObamaCare's demise has so unhinged Ed Schultz, the nation's top-rated liberal radio host and what passes for a political analyst at MSNBC, that Schultz can't string together sentences without contradicting himself.

Latest example? Schultz on his radio show Tuesday, enthusing about President Obama's speech to school children and one of its core messages -- which Schultz promptly undermined with cheap-shot allusions to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck (click here for audio) --

SCHULTZ: We've read the speech. Obviously it was released online. Gosh, this is some really lofty stuff, isn't it? The president telling students to take responsibility. How damaging is that? Maybe if some of these right-wingers who used to be drug addicts took responsibility, they'd have a better life than they got right now. Maybe if somebody had talked to them about their personal lives and how they'd gotten their selves in order, they wouldn't have had some of the problems they've had, you know? 

'Go to class and listen,' he says. 'Don't let failures define you.'

"Don't let failures define you" -- which Limbaugh and Beck, both recovering from substance abuse, have clearly not allowed to happen. Nor, for that matter, has Air America Radio host and unabashed liberal Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also a former addict. But Schultz is too puny to understand that addiction, and struggling to overcome it, extends across the political spectrum.

That Limbaugh and Beck enjoy more success and influence than Schultz also fuels his resentment. Here's an example of Schultz's toxic bellicosity, never far from the surface, once again from yesterday's radio show (audio here) --

SCHULTZ (to listener who praises his MSNBC show; transcript starts 48 seconds into clip): ... So, Patricia, I appreciate you saying that and it's launched me into this shameless ask of, look, if you believe what I'm saying, if you believe that I'm on point, the best thing you can do is support the programs and TiVo the show and DVR it  'cause we get credit for that on ratings and let's go kick their ass!

Schultz is content to let unhinged anger define him. I hope for his sake he finds the strength to recover from it.