Excerpt from:  Rush Limbaugh challenges President Obama to a debate, NY Daily News

by Kenneth R. Bazinet In Washington And David Saltonstall in New York

“If you can wipe me out in a debate … do you realize you will own the United States of America?” Limbaugh said on-air. “You will have no opposition.”

Stoking the flames, Limbaugh mockingly urged the President not to send in his place any “lightweights,” including “the ballerina, Emanuel.”

The reference was to Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a serious ballet dancer in his youth, who kicked off the strategy by calling Limbaugh “the voice and intellectual force” behind the GOP.

The White House’s central aim, insiders say, is to stoke the anger of independents, a key bloc always more interested in solutions than in partisan naysaying.

Wednesday, the strategy came into full bloom when former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe penned an Op-Ed in The Washington Post headlined, “Minority Leader Limbaugh.”

But the self-reinforcing power of the strategy, others noted, is that it depends on Limbaugh continuing to talk in ever-more divisive tones – a bet many are happy to make.

“As long as he’s talking, we’re happy,” said Carville, whom Limbaugh referred to Wednesday as “a second-rate talking head” who – along with Emmanuel and adviser Paul Begala – looks like “a reunion of the Village People.”

“It looks like that is going to work out,” Carville said of Limbaugh’s rhetorical ramp-up.

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