Nice Try, Rush

One of the most lastingly significant developments of the late Democratic primary campaign is how, from March 4 to June 3, a nationally-syndicated right-wing Republican radio talk show host kept the Democratic contest alive. But all bad things must come to an end, and -- if Senator Clinton does what she's said she'll do tomorrow at noon and cleanly exit from the contest -- Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" becomes something for the history books.

Limbaugh made one last try at it Wednesday, the morning after Senator Clinton urged her supporters to advise her, via her website, on what to do now that the primaries are over. Limbaugh told his listeners:

Well, as we all know, ladies and gentlemen, Operation Chaos continues. Mrs. Clinton did not quit. Everybody assumed that she was going to quit... Everybody is saying she's getting closer to quitting, they're trying to figure out what it is she wants and so forth. All this means is that Operation Chaos continues. Greetings, my friend, and welcome...

...the Drive-Bys and the Democrats, some of them are just beside themselves that Mrs. Clinton won't get the hint and won't get out; that she will not quit. I think this is perfectly understandable that the Clintons are behaving this way. Hillary can take this all the way to the convention if she wants.

She knows that the superdelegates can say whatever they say now, but until they actually vote at the convention, it doesn't matter until that happens. Ted Kennedy gave his concession speech in 1980 to Jimmy Carter at the convention. He didn't concede until then. She's obviously holding out for something...

Oh, I was watching this last night, and I was going nuts, she's burning down the house. Unity schmunity. Divided we are, this was Mrs. Clinton's message last night. So she says she wants everybody to go to her website, HillaryClinton.com, and share your thoughts. Now let me tell you what this is about. What she wants, she wants to grab as many people on her website urging her to keep going, to stay in this, so she can show that to the Obama people. She's talking about her 18 million votes which is as much, if not a little more, than he got. She's still talking about the Electoral College states that she won that put her at a mythical tally of 267, when you need 270. So clearly she's angling for something, and she needs public support in order to get it. Vice president, Supreme Court nomination, something along these lines. It's going to be a real interesting thing to watch Obama deal with this. So as the commander-in-chief of US Operation Chaos, I would like to urge all of you who want to, to go to HillaryClinton.com and tell her what you think she ought to do.

Now, I want you to be polite. I don't want any snide comments, and I know that people have already done that, but I want those of you who are part of this audience to say whatever is in your heart to Mrs. Clinton about her effort to continue here, within the spirit of Operation Chaos, keeping chaos alive. Mrs. Clinton did everything last night but thank me for helping to make this current situation possible...

Members of the "mainstream" news media have a vested interest in pretending that low-brow media like talk radio has no influence. Democratic and liberal activists and media -- unable or unwilling to create the space on the airwaves for a talent on the level of Limbaugh on their side (because correctness seems, even still, more important to them than ratings) -- frequently deride anything he says as somehow not relevant and to be discarded. But the fact remains: Limbaugh has, according to radio ratings, 22 million listeners a day (that's more than Senator Clinton's famous claim to having won 18 million votes over five months of primaries in every state and territory). Think about it: 22 million listeners a day.

Last year, Limbaugh generated so many phone calls into the US Capitol so as to shut down the phone lines while urging his listeners to oppose the Immigration Reform Bill: a bill that had the votes to be passed until his telephone campaign scared 13 Democratic senators and various Republicans that had committed to support it into suddenly voting against it.

In any case, good on Senator Clinton for dropping her whole "tell me what to do via my website" effort to somehow stay in the contest through the convention in August. Because a very large percentage of the feedback she no doubt got via her website to stay in the race came from the Limbaugh chaos lobby, as are, frankly, many of the anonymous comments that transitioning Clinton bloggers are receiving now that claim to be from Clinton supporters urging votes for McCain or third party candidates.

Many will continue to live in denial about the Limbaugh factor. I say to them: Oh yeah, show me the ratings.

The Field's analysis of exit poll data from March 4 (after the GOP nomination was settled and Republicans felt free to prank the Democratic primaries) to June 3, shows that 15 percent of Clinton's vote during that period came from pro-McCain voters pranking the system, mostly at the urging of Limbaugh. That is 990,000 votes (and delivered to Clinton victories in at least two primary states that she would have lost without them: Indiana and Texas).

Senator Clinton knows this. She knows her claims of a "tie" in the popular vote are based on Limbaugh voters. No matter what she has said, she knows it. And that is another reason why, tomorrow, she will begin to rally around the nominee.

It's one thing to make fantastic claims in politics. And it is another to believe everything one says. Thank goodness that Senator Clinton can now see the difference between the two.

(This essay was originally published at The Field.)

Follow Al Giordano on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AlGiordano

Comments

[bodo]

One thing is for sure. Rush will never "concede" that he failed when Obama is inaugurated. He will just start another spin about somebody else.

[magen]

Imagine if Randy Rhodes or some other progressive talk radio host openly promoted messing with the republiCON nomination process.

Hopefully under the overwhelmingly Democratic congress that is coming, along with President Obama, we'll be able to get some media reform.

Be afraid CONserviCONS. Be very afraid.

Reich-wing crazies dominating the airwaves is gonna be over soon.

[Bobrobert]

Question.

Why does anyone listen to a fool that hates them???

He laughes at his listeners all the way to the bank.

Remember to vote all.

:-)

[blessedfrog]

Do y'all really think that Rush's ditto heads made it out in droves
to vote for Hillary + snarkle up the democratic primary?

It just seems so implausible and ridiculous.

But what do i know

[uvymopkq]

Rush Limbaugh ....a great American!
"Operation Chaos" was great also.

[SouthFloridaDem]

I heard a theory that the so-called "Operation Chaos" is just a cover for those conservatives who are crossing over to vote for Obama. A cover so that other conservatives -- known to "fall in line" and act as a group -- don't hear about the in-its-infancy trend and go join it. In a wacky kind of way, it makes a lot of sense to me. (Of course, anything about conservatives is kind of wacky.)

[KMKY]

That is a much more interesting theory, considering Operation Chaos was "launched" as stories about Obamacans were picking up steam. What Limbaugh does intentionally, and Kerry unwittingly, is call into question the Obama campaign's earlier narrative about his appeal to Republicans. I think cross-over voting may have at least three different motivations: (1) a sincere interest in one candidate after disillusionment with your party; (2) a deep-seated desire to vote against one candidate in the other party; and (3) an overinflated belief in one's ability to influence the outcome of another party's primary. Rush Limbaugh may have 22 million listeners, but if 4 March is considered the date of Operation Chaos's first successes, then that means many of those listeners would have to be located in the remaining 14 states and Puerto Rico, or just in the 9 open primary states, or had changed their party affiliation by state deadlines in order to participate in the 4 closed primary states. Occam's Razor suggests the theory you heard is probably the most likely.

[KillTheMessenger]

Leave the man alone. He has done enough (harm).

:-)

[zaza]

Devious crossover voting is a good argument for having a single one-day national primary. This would eliminating the possibility of one of the party's candidate wrapping up the nomination while competitive primaries are still occuring in the other party, making devious crossover voting more likely. A national primary would also take care of the problem of states attempting to leap frog one another in order to have have more influence on the process by having an earlier primary.

[BigRube]

I will agree with you on that.

[JimR]

I don't think a national primary would work, but maybe several regional primaries. The circus we have now is exhausting and insane.

[KMKY]

Mr. Giordano, You are feeding an ego that is already overgorged, and you diminish real concerns regarding whatever problem areas Obama may need to address to solidify his appeal to all voters in November. Deflecting blame is the same method by which Kerry-Edwards lost in 2004. (And I was deeply disturbed to see Kerry at it again in giving credit for HRC's Indiana win to Limbaugh, considering she had just won in Pennsylvania.) It's about the Party and the Nominee getting out a persuasive message to an undeniable majority.

And, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Kentucky, which went for Clinton, were all closed primaries, just like Oregon, which went by a wide margin to Obama. Had Limbaugh's influence been that heavy, she would have won or at least come closer in Montana and North Carolina, an open and semi-open primary respectively.

[skepticalindenver]

Dead on target. operation Chaos? No, operation "Legend in His Own Mind" is more like it. Unfortunately people that wanted to discount any Clinton victory did what people do in a war. They portray an enemy in both superhuman and subhuman terms. You can't have it both ways, either Rush is a blow-hard that is insignificant, or he is a force to be reckoned with (in every contest that was an open one). I would think the former. They did the same with Hillary. While portraying her as a McCain lite when try to make her less a candidate and giving that as the reason she got blown away in some contests, then trying to claim she only got Republican crossover votes because Rush told them to when she did win. Which is it? Is it something else entirely?

An article like this serves to further distract and divide Democrats. Obama, like every other candidate for POTUS is needs to work on appealing to all, and it is indeed disturbing Kerry feels some need to try to cover up an Obama weakness by somehow trying to diminish a Clinton win. It serves no useful cause.

[KMKY]

Yes, all good points. I have been concerned about this with the DNC trying to portray McCain as Bush's third term. I think it may be a strategy either to diminish his appeal as a maverick or to force him to separate from Bush and then further anger the farther right voters, but I don't know how effective that will be.

[DennySP]

I remember the comedian's slogan....LET'S KEEP HILLARY 'IN IT' SO WE CAN 'WIN IT'. This was AFTER he espoused the idea that a Democrat in the White House for 4 years would create a Republican rebound in 4 years. He got so much flack from his "ditto-heads" that he changed his tune. Yep....ent­ertainment in it's weakest form.

[desertdweller]

Alas, the joke will be on Rush when the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th POTUS ushers in decades of Democratic dominance, re-alignment of the Supreme Court, and emasculation of the conservative movement.

[Monty1955]

The prolonged race caused by Operation Chaos only served to help facilitate a 50 state organization for Obama. Thanks Rush

[SeriousBlack]

If she "cleanly exits" on saturday. I'll believe it when I see it.

[CalexenderJ]

It's probably a little more difficult to quantify the effect of operation Chaos than you assume. Yes Rush has 22 mil listeners, but how many would go out of their way to register as an democrat (which some of the primaries required) just to do what Rush commanded?

[JennyJay]

The sad thing is that Hilliary thinks all those people voted for her because they like her. But they actually voted for her to mess up the system. Her strong showing in the race is just REPUBLICAN DIRTY TRICKS. I have Republican friends who actrually sent her money knowing . . . if she was nominated . . . . it was a sure fire Republican win in Nov. Boy! are they surprised now!