In the wide-open Republican presidential contest, Mitt Romney boasts an influential fan who has the ear of millions of voters.
Rush Limbaugh, the cigar-chomping conservative stalwart, has been on a tear over the last few weeks, talking up Romney and taking whacks at John McCain and Mike Huckabee. And in a race where no candidate has been able to unify the base of the Republican Party, Limbaugh's chatter matters. With 13.5 million listeners on 600 stations, the nation's most highly rated talk-radio host could give Romney a big boost.
"Of course it helps," said Stuart Stevens, a media adviser for Romney. "He's like the NPR for conservatives."
Limbaugh, who makes a point of saying he does not officially endorse in the primaries, has nonetheless praised Romney effusively, repeated Romney's policy talking points, defended him against attacks from fellow conservatives, and after Romney's win in Michigan this week, declared him the front-runner.
Just as tellingly, Limbaugh has been crusading against Huckabee and McCain, whom he does not consider real conservatives or suitable heirs to the Reagan legacy.
If either wins the nomination, "it's going to destroy the Republican Party," he told listeners Tuesday.
McCain is "someone who supported amnesty for illegal aliens, who supported limiting free political speech, who embraced the ACLU's brief for terrorist detainees getting US constitutional rights," Limbaugh said. Huckabee "might be a fine man, and is a great Christian - [he] is not a conservative."
Limbaugh also derides the independents and moderates supporting McCain and Huckabee as "quivering masses of Jell-Os" and not real Republican conservatives.
The talk-show host gushed about Romney's speech last month on religion and politics, in which the former Massachusetts governor, under pressure to confront suspicion about his Mormon faith, discussed the nation's religious heritage and declared that Jesus is his savior and that "freedom requires religion."
Limbaugh called the address courageous and "the kind of stuff I've been dreaming of hearing in a presidential campaign in a long time in terms of what this country is and where we're headed."
"He showed leadership doing this today," Limbaugh told listeners the day of the speech. "He exemplified characteristics of somebody who is not afraid to lead."
While Romney's advisers are aware of the kudos, Romney himself seemed unaware that he was being singled out for praise by the man who calls himself El Rushbo. "I haven't had the chance to hear Rush Limbaugh lately, but if he is saying nice things then I appreciate it," Romney said yesterday.
Plenty of others who follow politics have noticed that Limbaugh is using his "golden EIB microphone" to selectively slice and dice the candidates.
Conservative commentator David Brooks said Limbaugh has been "a very pro-Romney force in the past week" and "has been on the warpath against Huckabee and McCain as people who are not real Republicans."
"And there are a lot of people who listen to Rush Limbaugh, and a lot of talk-show hosts repeat what Rush Limbaugh says," Brooks, who is a
Limbaugh's fans are noticing as well.
Katie Koppin, a 22-year-old graduate of Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., said she voted for Fred Thompson in the Michigan primary after hearing Limbaugh lambaste Huckabee.
"Rush Limbaugh kinda pointed out a lot of different issues I hadn't thought of," she said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I was going back and forth between Thompson and Huckabee. . . . I realized that I couldn't really vote for Huckabee because of what Rush said."
Koppin, an avid listener who created the official Facebook Fan Club of Rush Limbaugh online and has been a guest on the show four times, said she is "still not totally sold" on Romney. "I don't know if he's someone I can trust," Koppin said.
Tommy Haygood, 65, a retiree from a meatpacking business in Columbia, S.C., is a regular listener who said he had heard Limbaugh analyzing the Republican race.
"Rush is right," Haygood said yesterday. "He goes after Huckabee and McCain because, hell, they're both libs in Republican outfits."
His wife, Susan, heartily agreed.
"He actually follows facts," she said. "I listen to him and I'm shocked how much he knows."
Globe correspondent Amy Farnsworth contributed to this report. Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.
