“Rush Limbaugh is now the leader of the Republican Party,” said Clarence Page in the Chicago Tribune. “Just ask Democrats.” They’re happy to paint Limbaugh as the Right’s leading voice, and Limbaugh is surely loving the publicity bonanza of the feud he launched by saying he wants Obama to fail. The GOP, however, is suffering, because it will never broaden its appeal with Limbaugh as its spokesman.
This feud is as much the Democrats’ doing as Limbaugh’s, said Jonathan Martin in Politico. Democratic strategists realized months ago that they “could roll out a new GOP bogeyman for the post-Bush era by turning to an old one in Limbaugh, a polarizing figure since he rose to prominence in the 1990s.”
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“Which is why Republicans' best move, at this point,” said Jason Zengerle in The New Republic, “is probably just to ignore Limbaugh: don't denounce him (and then inevitably recant), don't praise him, and don't appear on his show.” Leave the radio to him, and get to work rebuilding the party.
The question is, said Kathleen Parker in The Washington Post, who's the leader to do that, since it's not Rush Limbaugh or even Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele? “The answer seems obvious: Mitt Romney.” He’s not a rabble-rouser out to "slash and burn" like Limbaugh—just a proven, temperate leader looking to "build and repair."