Obama Campaign Manager: Limbaugh, Beck and Palin a Problem for GOP

Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager on Sunday said Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin are currently the leaders of the Republican Party, and this represents a long-term problem for the GOP.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," David Plouffe was asked about a number of questions facing the nation as well as the President he helped get elected.

Apparently feeling the need to do some conservative bashing, host Gregory asked Plouffe about a section from his book "Audacity to Win" dealing with Limbaugh, Beck, and Palin.

This set the Obama adviser up nicely to go after targets liberals just love to hate (video follows with transcript and commentary): 

DAVID GREGORY, HOST: Finally, a quote from your book, handicapping the Republican field, this is what you write in the new part of "Audacity to Win." "This is the Republican Party of 2010, and I think it will be the Republican Party for a long time. It is hard to see how a Republican gets the presidential nomination without winning the plurality of the Palin-Limbaugh-Beck base of the Republican Party. Without a drastic change in orientation, they will probably nominate someone a good bit out of the mainstream." Who do you have in mind? Who do you think is the most formidable Republican likely to challenge President Obama?

DAVID PLOUFFE: Oh, I have no idea. I mean, this time four years ago there was very few of us talking about Barack Obama running for president, including me. So I think some of the people that we think are going to run may not run. There'll be other people who'll run. We'll see. I wish I could just sit back with a tub of popcorn and, and enjoy it because I think it's going to be quite an adventure.

MR. GREGORY: But who is the leader of the Republican Party, would you say?

MR. PLOUFFE: I think the--I think right now--and this is a problem for them long term--I do think that Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, they are the leaders of the party. And you see whenever--I was struck by--Senator Coburn from Oklahoma, I think, was at a town hall meeting and said, "I don't agree with anything the Democrats are doing, and I don't agree with Speaker Pelosi, but she's a nice person," and got attacked for that. There, there is an intolerance in that party and an extremism that I think is where the real energy is. And so I think, as you see in '11 and '12, as that presidential primary, those are the people that are going to come out to vote. So I think that's where the real energy is, and I think particularly in, in elections where more people vote, in presidential elections where you have a lot more younger people, minorities, independent voters who skew a little bit more moderate, that's going to be a big problem. So we'll just have to wait and see. But let's get this--through this election first, and then we'll be right on to the next one.

It truly is fascinating the left and their media minions continue to bash Limbaugh, Beck, and Palin.

After all, with the possible exceptions of Obama and the Clintons, there aren't any other liberal political figures in this nation that come close to the popularity and visibility of these three conservatives.

As such, suggesting that they represent a problem for Republicans is like saying ground beef and potatoes are bad for McDonalds.

Regardless, Gregory just couldn't resist giving his guest the opportunity to attack three of the nation's most well-known conservatives.

As the jingle goes, "If it's Sunday..."