Limbaugh sides with George Will and calls Obama 'an affirmative action hire'

Reacting to a Washington Post op-ed published Tuesday by conservative columnist George Will, Republican shock jock Rush Limbaugh told his listeners that he just might have a point about "Obama being an affirmative action hire."

Will's column sparked a torrent of controversy because he suggested that Americans "seem especially reluctant to give up on the first African American president," implying that Obama's seeming political success is due to his race.

"He might have a point," Limbaugh said on his Tuesday show. "There might be some people with some guilt. 'We gotta give the guy a second chance!'... I still found it an interesting thing to consider."

Suggesting that Obama came into his current job through "affirmative action" is an clearly racial line of attack, the likes of which Limbaugh has launched against Obama for years. He's previously labeled the Harvard graduate and former U.S. Senator a "halfrican American" and an "affirmative action candidate." The Republican talker even once played a song on his show titled, "Barack the Magic Negro," set to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon."

Obama won the 2008 presidential election by a wide margin that included 43 percent of white votes -- the most of any Democratic president since Jimmy Carter.

This audio is from "The Rush Limbaugh Show," broadcast Tuesday, October 2, 2012, as snipped by Media Matters.