Simply by acknowledging him, President Barack Obama has mistakenly given conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh a platform — involuntarily forging him as the mantle of the opposition. Never shy about playing the villain as he did during the Clinton administration, the opposition leader of a party in exile has again returned to lead his people through the wilderness.And Obama — having waged the initiative when he called out Limbaugh’s apparent weight (no pun intended) behind House Republicans’ opposition to the stimulus bill — made a serious error by acknowledging him.Those traditional conservatives on the far right have now translated Obama’s invocation as a verbal act of warfare.A standard axiom of warfare — those on the offensive have an advantage — doesn’t apply here because, unfortunately for the president, Limbaugh is winning.And Obama is making all the mistakes former President Bill Clinton did — namely, attempting to silence Limbaugh.Limbaugh’s name hasn’t been mentioned this much since he called Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb overrated because he’s black. Fast-forward five years, and because Limbaugh drew comment from the president, his words are again worthy of front page news.In response to every Republican representative voting against Obama’s proposed economic stimulus bill, Obama addressed Congress.From the floor of the U.S. House, Obama said, “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.”Consequently, on Jan. 29, The Wall Street Journal gave Limbaugh a platform to address the nation by offering him his own slot on the opinion pages of a publication with one of the largest circulations in America.And with this opportunity,       Limbaugh and the rest of the talk radio right have pursued a familiar tactic — fearmongering.By acknowledging his criticism of the stimulus, Obama allowed Limbaugh to successfully frame Obama’s invocation as a veiled assault on talk radio.Regardless of the threat’s merit, conservatives everywhere fear the state-imposed demise of their talk radio empire.After reading Limbaugh’s mock plan for a national stimulus, people unfamiliar with him may now be more attentive to his words.This could have adverse effects. Or it could come back to bite Obama — like it did when Limbaugh helped Newt Gingrich engineer the ”Republican Revolution” of the 1990s. Regardless, Obama has opened up an entirely new segment of the population to Limbaugh’s rhetoric.With a larger audience, talk radio has wisely chosen to mobilize its listeners against a revisied Fairness Doctrine, which has rallied the movement behind the fear of its silencing through government intervention.This does not bode well for the Democrats.The tragic lesson for Obama? If Obama had never mentioned Limbaugh’s name, you’d be reading about something else.——Contact Daniel Lumetta at [email protected]