Balloon Juice points out:

"Parkinson’s could be one of the first diseases treated by the product of stem cell research. That makes Michael J. Fox incontrovertibly right to let America witness his agonizing physical decline, and it makes Rush Limbaugh even more of an addled gasbag."

"Focus groups demonstrate that on a political level the ad was a home run with men on base. Please, Rush, say something stupid tomorrow. Watching this ad pushes Democrats, Republicans and Independents ten percentage points in the Democrats’ favor."

Meanwhile, Timothy Noah at Slate writes that Rush is the one faking -- faking stupidity -- and is really just doing what he does best, that is manipulate his listeners, tell them anything they want to hear, and treat them as they want to be treated: as repeated victims to a con.

Ever since the resignation of Richard Nixon, a very smart man who got caught abusing his executive power, the GOP has deliberately avoided nominating conspicuously intelligent people for president. Gerald Ford was smarter than he looked, but he was unable to dispel his buffoonish image. Ronald Reagan was famously checked out and ill-informed. George H.W. Bush, though clearly smarter than Dubya, is not exactly imposing in the brains department, and he's demonstrated almost as much difficulty as his son in formulating a coherent sentence. And George W. Bush? Let's just say the guy is either mentally lazy, not very bright, or some combination of these two. I've never felt it necessary to refine that diagnosis; the term I favor is "functionally dumb."

Two things must be said about my assertions in the previous paragraph. One is that they are all unmistakably true. The other is that whenever a liberal repeats any one of them out loud, that liberal—and contemporary liberalism generally—come under attack, along with the Democratic party, the New York Times, Harvard, the AFL-CIO, the Council on Foreign Relations, the three major TV networks, and the Sierra Club. If a liberal is deciding whom to hire to answer phones and return papers neatly to a metal filing cabinet, it's considered legitimate for that liberal to formulate a judgment as to the candidates' intelligence. If a liberal is deciding whom to vote for in a presidential election, it is not. Merely to raise the issue is seen as conclusive evidence that one is snobbish and effete, and that the subject of one's skeptical inquiry is an authentic man of the people.

Nobody knows this better than Rush Limbaugh, who has said so many idiotic things on his radio show over the years that Al Franken, a famous liberal comedian/talk-radio host, walked right into the trap by penning a book titled Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. Which of course made Limbaugh an even bigger hero to the dittohead faithful.

I'm not saying Limbaugh isn't a little bit stupid. I'll give him that. But give me a break. On the subject of Fox's Parkinson's, he's just all over the place making one asinine comment after another! He can barely control himself! But you'll notice Rush can still cut to a commercial when his engineer tells him to. I'm telling you: Limbaugh's moronic blowhard routine is purely an act. Limbaugh is exaggerating his stupidity to advance political ends, and I find that despicable.

It's just amazing how so many people, i.e. dittoheads, day after day want to be misled and lied to, they demand it of Rush, to create some kind of fantasy world where all their kooky beliefs and bitter emotions can be "real" and "true-to-life". Rush serves as the huge con man behind the curtain, working the dials, throwing his followers made-up gibberish and twisted tales -- anything to enrage and piss off these fools, thus keeping them tuned in for another day.

They don't mind being used; after all, they apparently didn't mind being used by Bush/Cheney regarding faith in God or tax cuts for the rich.