RUSH: How many of you’ve heard about the trials and tribulations of Rosie O’Donnell with Oprah? Rosie O’Donnell is a classic illustration of a point that I’ve made frequently about liberals, and that is failure is a resume enhancement. You fail as a Democrat — politician or whatever — fail as a liberal, and you get promoted. It’s almost like your failure has made you a victim, particularly if it’s in the private sector. Then your failure is because of evil conservatives who haven’t signed on to whatever it is you’re doing. Or stupid, idiotic Southerners who refuse to watch your show, or what have you. But you gave it your best shot. You tried. You put Rosie on the air.

Even though she’s yet to have a successful talk show, Oprah hires her and puts her out there. It bombs. It bombs big time. They put Rosie on at seven p.m. on Oprah’s network, the OWN network. O-W-N: Oprah Winfrey Network. Nobody does a talk show at seven o’clock, and nobody’s gonna watch a talk show at seven o’clock on a network nobody knows exists. But everybody thinks in media that Oprah is gold, so all you gotta do is have a story on Entertainment Tonight and in the New York Post TV section that Oprah has a network, and the world will know. Then you announce on Entertainment Tonight and the New York Post TV section that you’ve hired Rosie. And then the world will know and they will flock to the network and the show.

That’s what they think, because they let the media make them.

But it never happened.

So now they’ve fired Rosie. Rosie wanted to move her show from Chicago where Oprah’s network is to New York. They said “no.” But they didn’t just fire Rosie. “Oprah Winfrey has cut 30 full-time employees from its struggling OWN Network, a move that represents a loss of nearly a fifth of its workforce. After the latest round of cuts, about 90 people remain on the OWN payroll, down from 150 employees at its peak. ‘It is difficult to make tough business decisions that affect peopleÂ’s lives,’ Winfrey, OWNÂ’s CEO and chief creative officer said in a written statement Monday. ‘But the economics of a start-up cable network just donÂ’t work with the cost structure that was in place.”

No, Oprah, they don’t work with Rosie O’Donnell. They were not talking mass appeal here!

Put her on HBO.

Put her on cable where they don’t need an audience.

She’d be fine.

But this is not my point. I’m just giving you facts. Just giving you data. My point is: Why is Oprah laying off workers? Why is Oprah ignoring the Obama way? Why is Oprah ignoring Keynesian-inspired deficit spending to spur growth at her network? Why isn’t Oprah out saying, “You know what? I’m gonna spend and spend! I’m gonna keep hiring! Even though my network’s not making a dime and nobody’s watching Rosie, I’m gonna go out and I’m gonna hire even more people. I have camera-ready jobs here. I got control-board-ready jobs here. I got stage-manager-ready jobs here. Uh, I’m just gonna keep hiring. I’m gonna keep spending. I’m going to do it the Obama way. I’m gonna spend money I don’t have, and that’s how I’m gonna grow my network.”

Why didn’t she do exactly what the president she endorsed has been doing? This really disappoints me. I thought all good liberals understood that when times get tough — when growth is stymied, when jobs are needed — the last thing you do is cut costs. The last thing you do is fire people. No, when your business is tanking just like your country, what do you do? You borrow more money and you spend more money and then you give it to union people! Why couldn’t Oprah do that? Has she not learned anything from watching Obama? This is called “investing in the future.” You deficit spend. Camera-ready jobs in Oprah’s case.

Now, there is one difference.

Obama gets to do his spending with everybody else’s money.

Oprah would have to spend hers.

And Oprah decided, “You know what? Obama’s way won’t work for me. If I could spend Obama’s money doing this, I would do it, but I have to spend my own. So I’m not going to deficit spend for more camera-ready jobs. I’m not gonna give Rosie a raise. I’m not gonna go out and hire three more hosts to do three more shows and expand my network like Obama would, because I’m not gonna spend my own money irresponsibly.”

So in the real world — in the real world of the private sector — Oprah Winfrey would no more do what Barack Obama’s doing with this country’s economy with her own company than anybody else would. She’s doing what must be done: cutting costs, canceling failed shows, getting rid of employees that she can’t afford who aren’t doing any work. ‘Cause that’s the real world. No, Oprah knows. She lives in the real world.

Obama doesn’t.

He’s in a fantasy make-believe world. When audience share is down, when you’re up against hard times, what would Obama do? Double down on spending! Hire more people! Triple down on spending! Go borrow more money! Hire your way out of this, Oprah. Do it the Obama way! It worked wonders for him, didn’t it? Why aren’t you deficit spending? Are you afraid of a little bankruptcy, Oprah? Come on, hire up! Watch your ratings go through the roof. You haven’t busted enough budgets yet to see results. Spend, baby, spend! You’re not spending enough money. That’s the problem with your network.

That’s what Obama would tell you.