Remember back in 2008, when conservatives complained that any attack on Barack Obama would be called racist? The prospect of Hillary Clinton running for president in 2016 has Erick Erickson worried that “every attack you could possibly level will be some phobia from the right.” We think he meant to say that his every right wing phobia about Mrs. Clinton will now be expressed from his own lips, as unaccountably and mysteriously and innocently as he pleases, and he will take umbrage when people get upset about it. Further prognostications and bullet points below the video:

  • Erickson did his concern-trolling about Clinton’s age on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. We predict this episode will not repair either personality’s deflating media value
  • Just as attacks on Obama became increasingly racist with Sarah Palin’s arrival and even more racist after he was elected, a Hillary candidacy will make patriarchy and misogyny even more pronounced in right wing activism — and a second Clinton presidency will drive the religious right batshit insane
  • Just as we have become increasingly worried by armed right wing reactionaries during the Obama presidency, we expect an upsurge in anti-abortion extremism and terrorism to accompany a Hillary campaign and presidency
  • Erickson is exploring ways to dehumanize a grandmother. We expect this kind of ugliness to be a trend in conservative media as the Clinton’s grandmotherhood looms. The pending birth is already a right wing conspiracy theory
  • Rush Limbaugh’s business model is broken, a testament to the power of social media and demographic change.

And we just got the first round of monthly radio ratings yesterday. Tomorrow we’re gonna get Boston, Detroit, Miami, San Diego.

But yesterday we got New York, and Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Chicago and Dallas and some of the other big markets. And it is stunning to say this when we think that Rush Limbaugh himself led this whole talk radio revolution back in 1990. But today Rush Limbaugh is on the Number 22 station in New York. He is on the number 37 station in Los Angeles. In New York, four of the stations that are beating his station are not even English language stations.

The Rush Limbaugh station in New York is getting beat by a station that plays classical music. In Los Angeles where you might expect it, there are 11 non-English speaking stations beating Rush Limbaugh. And guess what? In both markets, the station that he just left in January is now up slightly over where it was when he left.

  • Just as Erickson’s online movement was unable to make a dent in Obama, we predict it will find no electoral traction against Hillary Clinton
  • Limbaugh’s brand is exhausted and his career has become an example of wingnut welfare. Erickson’s brand faces the same demographic and market challenges as Limbaugh’s because this type of talk is constantly declining in cultural relevance

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