Although I think what Limbaugh said may have been taken at least a little out of context, I certainly wouldn't put it past him to put his own interests over that of his country. So if Obama should turn out to be a failure, if the economy does not recover during his first term or gets a lot worse, Rush could then say "hey, so who told you that Obama would be bad for this country?".
One interpretation of what Limbaugh said is not unlike those liberals who wished that Bush failed in implementing his right-wing agenda: tax cuts, privatizing social security, public funding of faith-based groups, an anti-science agenda, etc. But did these same liberals hope that Bush would be disastrous for the country, so in the end they could say "ha! told you so!". For the most part, I don't think so. By the same token, I don't think most conservatives want Obama to be a failure to the point that the country becomes worse off. On the other hand they want him to fail in pushing a left-wing agenda. I don't think most people put their ideology over their country's interest, unless their career is based on selling their ideology. Leaders of political extremist movements love economic catastrophes, since this is the environment in which they thrive; look at the Nazis, Bolsheviks and communists and how they grew in influence as their economies collapsed and/or they became exhausted due to war.
Having listened to Rush a bunch of times and knowing what he is about(and disagreeing with him at least 75% of the time), does lead me to suspect that he may in fact want not just Obama to fail but for America to fail while Obama is in power, for the economy to collapse so completely so that he can point his big fat finger at Obama and the anti-American liberals and tell everyone how their left-wing agenda is destroying America(never mind that the economic collapse started under Bush). This would be a huge credibility boost for Rush and his fellow right-wing talking-heads, and they could more than make up for whatever credibility they lost while being apologists for Bush. Rush could become more mainstream and may be in the position to push his far right agenda, along with the Republicans; his power and influence among the Republicans may grow in fact, and while he may not seek to be the "king" of the Republicans, he is more than satisfied being king-maker.
I could be wrong though, and maybe Rush only wants Obama to fail in pushing his left-wing agenda; I can't read Rush's mind, but should Obama be a success, this doesn't exactly help Rush's career, in my opinion. Even if Rush doesn't truly want Obama to fail, or for the economy to get worse it's not like Rush won't fully exploit the situation should that happen.
I did not vote for Obama but I certainly hope he succeeds, and if McCain(I didn't vote for him either) had won, I would have hoped the same for him.
