Correction.
Rush is more popular than ever because Americans like what he has to say and more and more are tuning in as an alternative to lefty Olberman and his ilk.
Osama would be more popular than ever because anti-US sentiment is so high. Of course, he'd be wrong and worth of a nice JDAM to the studio. But the fact remains that hundreds of idiots would tune in to hear this idiot talk.
Assigning credibility to someone because "a lot of people listen to them" has been done, and debunked, many times on this board in the last 2 years. It doesn't work. Rush isn't right because he has many listeners. He'd be just as right or wrong with 20 listeners as he is with 20 mil listeners.