Exit Polls: Limbaugh Effect Seems To Rear Its Head

Did Rush Limbaugh actually impact the Democratic primary?

The loud-mouthed radio talk show host has been encouraging Republicans to vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton to continue the "chaos" in the Democratic race. And a sampling of some key exit poll information suggests he may, to a certain extent, be having an effect.

Thirty-six percent of primary voters said that Clinton does not share their values. And yet, among that total, one out of every five (20 percent) nevertheless voted for her in the Indiana election. Moreover, of the 10 percent of Hoosiers who said "neither candidate" shared their values, 75 percent cast their ballots for Clinton.

These are not small numbers. By comparison, of the 33 percent of voters who said Sen. Barack Obama does not share their values, only seven percent cast their ballots in his favor. Basically, more people who don't relate to Clinton are, for one reason or another, still voting for her. These are not likely to be loyal supporters.

On a broader level, among the 17 percent of primary goers who said they would choose Sen. John McCain over Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical general election match-up, 41 percent of that group came from Clinton's own camp. In essence, roughly seven percent of Clinton support in Indiana (40 percent of 17 percent) said they would defect to the Republican should she end up the nominee. That would be a difficult punch to stomach in November. In 2004, nearly 1 million Indianans voted for John Kerry. A seven percent defection rate would have meant 70,000 less votes.

By contrast, if the general election is between Obama and McCain, 19 percent of the Indiana Democratic primary goers said they would support the Republican. But only 12 percent of that group (2.28 percent) would come from Obama's camp.

The numbers suggest one of three things: A) Clinton's support in Indiana, while clearly there, is not entirely solid; B) a large swath of Indiana primary goers simply didn't like the nominees and thought of Clinton as the lesser of two evils; or C) Limbaugh's hatchet plan could be having political ripples.

Perhaps it's a mix of all three.

Comments

[harriscrl3]

Rush Limbaugh said that this is the way he intended it to be all along. That he intended Obama to be the nominee because he is the weaker candidate. I've always known that some of these republicans are truly idiots but I think this election has really clarified it. I see now why they have to resort to basic simply mudslinging to combat Obama. They dont have the intelligence to go at him with intelligence. a columist said a while ago that you have to go at Obama with a scapel instead of a meat cleaver. But the problem is many of these republicans dont know how to use a scapel. Hilary does not either thats why they all use a meat cleaver to go after him. He is an enigma for them because he brings into light their HYPOCRISY. He turns their patriotism argument on its head and he still wont wear a flagpin. He turns their he is too liberal arugment on its head by saying these are not liberal values or conservative values they are commons sense or my favorite AMERICAN VALUES LOL.

[HumeSkeptic]

Nice post. I agree with your assessment. They don't quite know how to handle him because he seems to connect directly with people and is able to have an adult conversation with them. That has totally befuddled the Right Wing and the Hillary camp.

[missette]

Now let's just for a moment take Limbaugh at his word and believe he intended for Obama to be the nominee all along. That means he was giving marching orders to his flock under false pretenses, telling them to vote for Hillary because she'd be the weaker candidate. What Limbaugh is really saying is that he has little respect for his own followers and will use them to meet his own ends...if he was really trying to manipulate an Obama win as he claims.

[JRandomPoster]

Ha - beware what you wish for. You just might get it.

[bassface49]

After 1000's of comments!
Messing with the other parties elections is CHEATING!!
Our Founders called for 'FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS' and it is DISHONEST and UNETHICAL to do otherwise!
You can spin this all you want and it does not change the FACT that your intention is as UNAMERICAN
as 'Mein Kemph'!

YOUR COMPLETE LACK of POLITICAL MORALS IS THE REASON
young evangelicals are embarrassed at how their parents were manipulated by your 'party of demons'!
TRUE Conservatives, aka Bruce Feign, are DISGUSTED with what YOUR party has become.
And all you 'bad-ass' repub's, let me guess, you are not 'over there' fighting your boogie man' so you can hold the fort and 'protect our marriages'­.........N­eo-Cowards ALL!

[UsofA]

Right on !

[MadJeffersonian]

This prick is one of the main culprits in turning our democracy into a joke, a Banana republic. He is the mouthpiece for the Bush Crime Syndicate and its elite brothers-i­n-corrupti­on.

[JRandomPoster]

He's a cog in the machine. The reason he is getting noticed right now is that cog is currently engaged in making the whole thing spin.

[HumeSkeptic]

It is that. But, also, he is providing an outlet, giving something to do, to a large part of his audience that was totally bent out of shape because McCain won the nomination.

[FarquadArnot]

Wow! I like that! Bush Crime Syndicate. It's a great CD title!

The corporations are the nations of the world. Bush/Clinton/Reagan all bow at the altar of the multinationals. Thank God gas is going north of $4.00/gall­on. People will finally wake up to the screwing they've been getting. And the military has been so abused, they won't fight for these morally bankrupt politicians.

In the meantime, start shopping at small, independent businesses. Pay a little more and take some power away from multinationals.

Bush Crime Syndicate, a subsidiary of the Trilateral Commission and producer of such fine products as the Iraq War, the PATRIOT ACT and the Bohemian Grove

Put down your iPods. Turn off your television. Pay attention. We are at a crossroads.

[werbenjagermanjensen]

Limpaugh is cynically manipulating a psychological phenomenon known as "confirmation bias," a well-known staple in the arsenal of con artists, hucksters, "psychics," etc.

To quote the Skeptic's Dictionary http://www.skepdic.comm):

Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs. For example, if you believe that during a full moon there is an increase in admissions to the emergency room where you work, you will take notice of admissions during a full moon, but be inattentive to the moon when admissions occur during other nights of the month. A tendency to do this over time unjustifiably strengthens your belief in the relationship between the full moon and accidents and other lunar effects.

This tendency to give more attention and weight to data that support our beliefs than we do to contrary data is especially pernicious when our beliefs are little more than prejudices. If our beliefs are firmly established on solid evidence and valid confirmatory experiments, the tendency to give more attention and weight to data that fit with our beliefs should not lead us astray as a rule. Of course, if we become blinded to evidence truly refuting a favored hypothesis, we have crossed the line from reasonableness to closed-mindedness.

[JRandomPoster]

Excellent analysis.

Still, I think it goes a bit beyond that. I think that people really enjoy being vicariously evil and nasty through Rush. They fundamentally want to be good, but darnit, being bad is so much fun. Especially if being bad means that you get to do so by acting like a thuggish bully with those who do not share your views, and get a false sense of righteousness out of it.

[Rule Of Law]

Ah ah...thugi­sh bully...le­st we affront bullies everywhere, exercise restraint, please. Henceforth, refer to them as control challenged, A type indivduals. :)

[DofG]

I concur. The problem is once the dye of prejudice and closed-mindedness is cast, it may take thousands of years to reverse it. In the final analysis, all of Man's problems are expression of ignorance, and "purposeful false knowledge", intended to control the masses for the benefit of a few.

[HumeSkeptic]

Excellent. I used to subscribe to the Skeptic magazine when Carl Sagan was still alive and writing for the magazine. Now I buy it only once or twice a year.

[Rule Of Law]

Hey, he's still fat--is also still a junkie?

[JerryinATL]

don't forget he is rich too

[JRandomPoster]

Hate, ignorance and bigotry are an easy sell. But in the end, there is a cost for being a salesman of these things.

[99hockeyman]

So, being rich makes you a better person?

[Rule Of Law]

Hey, rich is good. Being a right bastard isn't.

[JRandomPoster]

The junkie part is only worth mentioning in the context of the fact that for years he preached the gospel of The War On Drugs (tm).

His weight - well, we're better than that.

Let us not fall to the level of the "ditto heads".

[Rule Of Law]

Hate to disagree J, but i think it is very revelatory about the inner psyche of the man. He obviously has control issues, and they manifest themselves in his consumption of illegal drugs and in his inability to exercise any restraint over his diet. He is a textbook walking example of how gluttony, both physical and spiritual, can destroy a person while shining a bright light on their own sense of being above the law, and above others. He is a me me me person--and it shows. My remark was observation based on fact. And it goes to his seeming inability to recognize his own limitations and desire for more in everything. It's all about Rush, plain and simple, and the proof is in his pudding!

[JRandomPoster]

It appears that we are cycling back through the same arguments by the "ditto heads" again, their obvious intent to keep their lies and deceits on the front page here.

So - lets be preemptive.

Was the crossover voting advocated by KOS in MI ethical? No. But it is an open primary there. It is something that all the states and all the parties with open primaries have to face.

On the other hand, it is illegal and unethical both in Indiana and Ohio.

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/freefair/articles.php?ID=367

http://www.slate.com/id/2189893/

http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title3/ar10/ch1.html

In Ohio, an investigation was opened into Operation Chaos:

http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/03/_the_brazen_attitude_of.html

What Rush did was to advocate the breaking of the law, and of an oath required to switch parties on the day of the primary. His followers did so, and confessed to it publicly - on his show. This makes not only those who performed his bidding criminal, but also Rush by the definition of conspiracy to commit a crime.

[windwalker1984]

Some time around 1 am this morning CNN, MSNBC & FOX all had discussion round tables going and comments were made that the Rush Operation Chaos may have won Indiana for Clinton.

Even with that help from Republicans, Hillary Clinton and her supporters need to realize this reality:
With North Carolina and Indiana complete, Barack Obama only needs 169 total delegates to capture the Democratic nomination. This is only 36% of the total remaining delegates.
Conversely, Senator Clinton needs 326 delegates to reach the Democratic nomination, which represents a startling 69% of the remaining delegates.

It should be evident within a couple of weeks to all that it is time to end Hillary's negative campaign and start banding together to take on the Republicans, uniting behind the Democratic candidate, Obama.

[mach]

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
No one who switched parties in last month's primary in Cuyahoga County will be investigated for possible prosecution, county election officials decided this week.


And although the Ohio Democratic Party is satisfied with the current primary process in Ohio, the state GOP is willing to discuss whether to change state law before the next major primary in 2010.


Thousands of voters statewide switched parties on March 4. Most were Republicans taking Democratic ballots to participate in that competitive presidential race.


Authorities say state law requires that such "crossover" voters sign a form under penalty of falsification, a felony, that they support the principles of the party whose ballot they are requesting.


There had been talk in Cuyahoga County, the state's most populous, of investigating voters who admitted lying on their form, including one who reportedly wrote on his form that he was switching parties "for one day only."


Democrat Sandy McNair, a county elections board member, made a motion Monday to subpoena that voter, but no one seconded and the matter ended there, spokesman Mike West said.

[Intelligentia]

And these Republican subversives are your patriots and honest Christians? Yea, right!

[JRandomPoster]

I'd like to see a link to this. I have had trouble tracking down what happened on the Ohio case.

Still, assuming that this is an actual article, I will still maintain that it is unethical to strategically vote in another party's primary for the purpose of selecting a less worthy candidate. After all, in the end, there is a chance that candidate will be leading us all.

Nor does this article mean that such actions are not illegal in either Ohio or Indiana. The fact that the "powers that be" decided not to enforce the law does not mean that it is not the law. For whatever reason - backlash, provability, whatever - those looking at the case decided not to pursue it.

At the end of the day, the stated intent of Rush and some of his listeners was to poison the democratic side of the presidential primaries. They revel in bragging that this was their intent. It would take a pretty incredible argument to convince me that this was not an act of maliciousness, and as un-American as you can get.

[JerryinATL]

Any law on the books, in any state, that limits a persons ability to vote for anyone they want, and for any reason, is unconstitutional. Where is the ACLU on this.

[JRandomPoster]

I'll get right on contacting the ACLU right about the same time you show me where in the constitution political parties - let alone their primaries - are mentioned.

Also. A political party is a private organization, with the right to make their own rules. Before you ask - no, I am not real hot on the whole super delegate thing. Nor am I a fan of open primaries at all.

If you don't like the way your party works, start a new one. Might even be the right time in history; there does seem to be some shifting in the demographics making up both parties at this point.

[99hockeyman]

Trying to defend Rush when he wanted to keep his medical records private. They helped him with that even though he has spent years bashing them.

[99hockeyman]

Conservatives want to blast celebrity endorsers all the time. They wonder why anyone would vote because a rock star or movie star or athlete support a candidate. Then why would anyone be swayed to vote for President by a draft-dodging, pill-popping, freak of a man. How brain dead you must be to be lead and swayed by that kind of person.

[gregrocker]

He is a demigod to the rednecks. And he brought them to total power and wrecked the country.

[cazety]

I agree that the most positive element of this article is to point out that there are still people in this country who are dumb enough to be taken in by this grandiose windbag. If you listen to him for 5 minutes anyone with at least half a brain could tell that he cares much more about enhancing the wealthy at the expense of the poor. The worst thing about the article is that it gives credit to Rush for something that he doesn't deserve credit for. Rush has done his best to help Karl Rove realize his dream of a generation of Republican domination - and look how this is turning out. Why does anyone think that he has enough influence to affect this primary - people have their own reasons for voting as they do. It is too bad that people blow more hot air into his super inflated ego and help foster his delusions of being a king maker.

[JohnKemp]

Hey, the real reason for Obama's giddiness is that he was able to stock up on cheap cigarettes while in NC; for a three-pack-a-day Marlboro man, he really saved some funds.



I understand that he left here with a tunk-full.

[JRandomPoster]

You really are becoming overly trollish.

Uncited, deceitful, ad hominim lying attacks all you got left in your bag?

Why don't you tell us how Obama is really a low life street dwelling bum, an elitist, not-black-enough, black supremacist, radical Christian Islamofascist plant?

That line seems to be the standard fallback - just saving you the keystrokes.

[JerryinATL]

I could not have said this better

[99hockeyman]

You are becoming the Moron of Mathews NC with your hate. The days of your pal Jesse Helms are over in North Carolina. The students and the transplants in the state helped Senator Obama to the win and they will be back to help him win their in November. It must really get in your crawl that he kicked her tail last night and will do it again in November. WWJD-What Would Jesse Do. I guess go back into his dark corner like you.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Trust Herr Johnny Reb "The South Shall Raaase Agin!" Kemp to finally break down and succumb to his clinical xenophobia and show his true colours.

Sad creature, these xenophobes. Must be terrible to contemplate that "their" country will most likely be led by the very first President of African descent in our nation's history. That he may in fact prove more than competent, more than capable, and more than qualified is irrelevant to such poor sad sack bigots like Johnny Reb Kemp.

Very sad; Kemp and his kind can only be pitied.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[JerryinATL]

why is it, that when liberals do not like what is posted you try and make fun of the poster? Bowlegs339 effectivly shut the stupid comment down without making themselves look foolish. Sadly you did not have the same effect.

Now that have said something you do not like, call me a name or type with an 'accent'.

[HumeSkeptic]

Kemp and his kind can only be pitied.
-----------
You are too generous. Given just a bit of encouragement, or a platform, such people are capable of doing real harm to others.

[bowlegs339]

JohnKemp, you must not have really been paying attention. Obama quit smoking around the time he joined the race for president. What else ya got??

[JRandomPoster]

Oh, I'm sure he'll bring up the yellow journalism of the reporter who claimed that "Obama smelled of smoke on his clothing one day." The reporter said he had a "very sensitive nose" to prove his case.

None of us are perfect. But it really seems that folks have to reach a long way to find mud to throw at Senator Obama.

[zoozey]

Just to be your ditto-head, and quote some of your talking points:

..."just how do you know that?"

...."how and why one votes (insert 'smokes' here) is his own business, no one else's"

You really are a sad, sad excuse.

[Dangler]

I have to admit Chris Matthews really took it to Rush and the brainwashed "dittoheads" that he represents last night. He also rolled his eyes when they brought up the race %'s and said something to the effect of "Can't we skip that just once!" I was impressed.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/07/chris-matthews-slams-rush-limbaugh-in-keith-style-special-comment/

[JohnKemp]

Did he get a "warm feeling up his leg?"

[BlondeLebanese]

Do you mean like the 'warm feeling' in your crotch when you listen to Rush?

[weaselbasher]

Matthews is absolutely correct. It's despicable for dittoheads to abuse their votes that people have died for. I'm glad the bloated draftdodger thinks so much about American's sacrifices for democracy, What a hypocritical weasel. BASH!

[DrDemon]

How does Rush get to say WHATEVER he wants, but then yet what we say, on here, has to be "APPROVED" before posted.?

He has AIRWAVES. We have WEBSITES. WHAT"S UP WITH THAT?

[JRandomPoster]

I have yet to have a comment here blocked or censored. And I see an awful lot of stuff here by folks like krat.

The point is to keep truly offensive and hateful speech out - the sort of thing that you would get some pretty offended looks from passerbys were you to say them on the street.

[JohnKemp]

You must agree with the HuffPo's "all-Obama, all the time."

I've never violated the HuffPo's stated censorship "policy" (sic) & yet get comments (especially anti-Obama ones) erased all of the time.

[HumeSkeptic]

A better analogy of posters is to compare them to callers to Limbaugh's entertainment show on radio.

[DrDemon]

True!

[Cil]

DrDemon,

I really won't complain about huff's blog if I were you, Huff is 100% better than CNN.
Apart from being constantly left in limbo by CNN's moderators, sometimes in the middle of typing my comment, CNN just zaps my comment! (I am serious) I am taking a break from them. I will be posting on huff, politico, and any other blogs that are not so transparently Biased towards Clinton!

[DrDemon]

Not really complaining here... But what abut my main point? (Rush vs _____)?

[akkadian]

No doubt Limbaugh's disciples may have cost Obama the race in Indiana, but it matters not. The race is over, Clinton lost and Obama is going to cook McWar's goose in November

[JohnKemp]

Really?

Perhaps that's why Hillary was back on the campaign trail this AM in WV while Obuma huddled with Superless-Delegates in DC?

[legalgirl]

AND picked up 4 more superdelegates while he was at it. McCain, on the other hand, found 25% of his party voting AGAINST him. Now who's going to cook whose goose in November? Say it again, Hillary LOST.

[NotaBeliever]

Rush is so 45 years ago. I've actually listened to his bloviating exercises in ego-masturbation lately because the car radio is stuck on the neo-con talk station. He's laughable. So what if his followers would rather vote Dem in the primaries than for their own bright shining star of a candidate John ... uh ... McCain? Right before McCain became the Republican Anointed One, Rush and his ilk were weeping real tears because McCain wasn't their boy. And now he is their boy and they're stuck with him and they have nothing left to do but try to screw with the Dems. It won't work. [shrug] The Dems will hang a sign around McCain's neck that says "GWBush's 3d Term!" and his whole campaign will go down in flames ... as the price of gas gets to $4 ... then $5 ... and the cost of the Iraq War in money and lives goes spiraling ever higher, while the equity in home ownership drops like a rock.
Even the neo-Cons will vote for Obama, just to save their financial hides..

[HippieChick]

"I've actually listened to his bloviating exercises in ego-masturbation lately because the car radio is stuck on the neo-con talk station"

In a situation like yours, my choice would be to listen to traffic noise, or the wind, or sirens...a­nything but Rush. There are entirely too many jowled men spewing too much hate into this world that I already have to dodge. I would never intentionally tune my ears into their vile projections.

[NotaBeliever]

We must stay aware and informed ... I remember listening to Rush during the runup to the 1992 elections. He was almost as funny as he is now. I certainly remember laughing a lot. Laughter in the face of disaster is a good thing.

[JerryinATL]

Overwhelming support for Obama is wishful thinking. And any Rush listener would know that McCain was never the preferred candidate. Operation Chaos is a resounding success. Chaos was and is the goal. Whether you like it or nor Rush has more influence that any Liberal Pundit you have.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Jerry,

Rush is simply another corporate media blowhard who panders to the quack right fringe of the American body politic. His ratings I suspect are padded, just to keep him on the air stirring up his cultists.

"Operation Chaos" is anything but a success, and it appears in fact to have backfired on more than one level, but time will tell for sure.

Meanwhile, Senator Obama will most likely win the Democratic nomination, and then proceed to slowly, steadily, and with wit and intelligence and cold, hard facts eviscerate "Hundred years War" McCain, showing him for the bought lapdog of Charles KEating and the K Street crowd that he is.

Unless Chimpy McFlightsuit and his Uncle Deadeye Dick declare martial law or election fraud is committed by the "Gang of Pedophiles" on a scale dwarfing what happened in FL and elsewhere in the previous two elections, "Hundred Years War" McCain's presidential run will look like a slow motion train wreck.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[HumeSkeptic]

Now, now. Don't get carried away. Sure, Limbaugh did probably convince some particularly dumb dittoheads to do what he told them, and do the unpatriotic act of manipulating our election process. But a "resounding success"? I doubt it. That's what he probably tells you, I know, but then you have to be a total idiot to believe all that he says.

[NotaBeliever]

It no matter what the pundits say ... nothing matters but the results of the general election ... 4 more years on top of 8 years of unmitigated disaster is a hard sell to any thinking person, and thank the gods of Chaos, people have started thinking again. You should try it, yourself. Really. Clear the dittos out of your mind. You'll feel better.

[JRandomPoster]

You know - chaos and anarchy in this context might be considered synonyms.

Are you and Rush anarchists? Is that what we are missing here? Because I could have sworn that the Right usually bills itself as the Law and Order party.

[GrainOSand]

Is Rush Limbaugh really the face America wants to project to the world as the epitome of the American conscience?

For all who would waste valuable thought processes on this man’s pathetic and obvious self-interested approach to patriotism and for those who go one step further and actually digest and begin to parrot his dark dogma as the gospel, I say that your America is the America that America can no longer afford. Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are objects on a grill crying for a fork --they are done!

This is why I do not understand the flap over what Reverend Wright said about America. America cannot delude all of its citizens into the BS of “We ain’t done nothing wrong” patriotism. Reverend Wright was guilty of stating something as fact that was riper for qualification as possibility or supposition based on the historical record. America has not been shown by evidence to be involved in the creation of AIDS and therefore it is wrong to state a belief of the potential of a government to be complicit in such an act as anything more than possibility --not fact. As for “GD America” and “chickens coming home” statements, I ask for honesty and clarity in thought for all. Through only these means can we arrive at a better America that is free of the burden of hypocrisy. The record is there for all who would access it and look at it honestly with thinking clear of bias.

[Ndw]

He's such a noble American! I mean, I'm sure our Founding Fathers would be ever so proud.

Really, Limbaugh & his supporters are shameful, and as 'un-American' as it gets. They're doing something worse than flag burning, but no one seems to call them on it. It's disgraceful. Even I, loathing the Bush administration, wouldn't have betrayed what my country should stand for by making it a radio show spectacle, based on one pudgy, pink nitwit's ego.

[timothe]

What Rush was doing was no more than what you see in a political ad. Or an endorsement from some celebrity that knows very little about the candidate they are endorsing. His instructions and the success he has had is every bit as American as apple pie.

You want an example of un-American?

How about a far left organization getting a full page ad in the New York Times (at half price) insinuating that a 4 star general who has served his country for decades is a traitor?

Before he even testified.

That's un-American!

[CTmom13]

Here's more proof

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkZC9wc3yfg&eurl=http://ruralvotes.com/thefield/

Now he is saying the opposite to try to cover it LOL

[FunkyP]

Although I lack the credentials of the author here, I cannot buy in to the premise being proved by his 'facts'.
Example: He (Stein) says "Thirty-six percent of primary voters said that Clinton does not share their values. And yet, among that total, one out of every five (20 percent) nevertheless voted for her in the Indiana election. Moreover, of the 10 percent of Hoosiers who said "neither candidate" shared their values, 75 percent cast their ballots for Clinton.

These are not small numbers. By comparison, of the 33 percent of voters who said Sen. Barack Obama does not share their values, only seven percent cast their ballots in his favor. Basically, more people who don't relate to Clinton are, for one reason or another, still voting for her. These are not likely to be loyal supporters.
Yes, but what does that have to do with Limbaugh? Maybe they voted the way they did because they are racists, or maybe Rev. Wright pissed them off.
I believe the so-called Limbaugh effect to be as exaggerated as the ego of the Vulgar Pigboy. If a large percentage of alleged Hillary supporters (supposedly in her camp, but by some twist of logic would not vote for her should she be the nominee?) then, by definition, they are not in Hillary's camp.
Mr. Stein, your point is not proved, nor is it logical.

[JohnKemp]

"Mr. Stein, your point is not proved, nor is it logical."

Excellent post.

However, you are dealing with lib Dems on this site, & their "logic" dictates that they know more about what you are doing and why you are doing it than you do.

[HumeSkeptic]

their "logic" dictates that they know more about what you are doing and why you are doing it than you do.
------------

Give me one example in Sam Stein's article above that supports your assertion. Just one example.

You can't. And you know why? Because all you do is repeat some talking points that Limbaugh has pumped into your skull. You just mindlessly repeat those talking points.

[JRandomPoster]

ad Hominem, dicto simpliciter, and strawman arguments all in once post. Nice!

[HumeSkeptic]

Sam Stein's has presented one possible interpretation of facts. There is no claim that that is the "truth". You have another interpretation. Again, it is not ncessarily the truth.

You have no more proof than Sam Stein has.

The above said, I think you did a good job of presenting an alternative analysis.

[FunkyP]

As to my lack of proof, you are correct. My point was/is that the premise of the article was not backed up by any of the arguments. He may as well have titled the article the "Reverend Wright Effect," or "Fox News Effect", and given the results he cited as proof to the effect.
As to "truth", I never challenged the quoted 'truth' aspect. I merely point out the argument did not support the premise, and certainly not in a cause-effect way.
As to the people who called Rush to say they complied with his operation chaos proving the operation worked (stated by one poster who gushes 'it's in the transcript­')...they could be exaggerating, like their hero, to get some juice from it. Probably didn't even vote!

[JRandomPoster]

It is a statistical anomaly, and the data is irregular to the point where it is beyond just being outlier data.

When you see such data, there is usually some sort of cause for it.

You are saying, I believe, that a lot of these folks who crossed over voted for Clinton as opposed to Obama in protest. And yet - there was about 24% of the republican votes cast for Huckabee and Rommey. I'd claim that those were the true protest votes in this case.

Certainly there are some crossover voters who went for Hillary legitimately. But the numbers aren't aligned with the statistics seen in other states.