Rush Limbaugh, voice of American conservatism, dead at 70

“The political history of the last 30 years would have been different without him and his huge audience,” Mr. Hayward said. “There are many other fine conservative radio hosts, but Rush stands apart. He was the Babe Ruth and Tom Brady of talk radio.”

One of America’s most distinctive and politically formidable voices fell silent Wednesday when talk radio host Rush Limbaugh died from lung cancer. He was 70 years old.

Mr. Limbaugh virtually created the position of conservative talk radio host, and the medium made him both an architect of the modern right in the U.S. and a very wealthy man. Week after week, from his “golden microphone” and studio in “sunny southern Florida,” Mr. Limbaugh’s often trenchant and humorous — and almost as often controversial — three-hour weekday show delighted conservatives and infuriated liberals.

“Rush Limbaugh was an American original — an innovator, a visionary and a true patriot,” said Laura Ingraham, the Fox television host and conservative pundit whose career followed a path blazed by Mr. Limbaugh.

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