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Rush Limbaugh Claims Victory in Pennsylvania


While the title might sound odd, Limbaugh's insatiable ego will not allow him to resist tarnishing Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions with a strong dose of reality -- as well as his confession to his personal involvement in corrupting the presidential election.

The backstory is riveting. In March, Limbaugh launched his infamous, "Operation Chaos," a devious anti-democratic plan devised to undermine the Democratic presidential nominee whom he believes will be: Senator Barack Obama. In several of his broadcasts, Limbaugh implored his legions of devout right-wing followers to cast aside their Republican inhibitions and vote in the Democratic primaries for Obama's rival: Senator Hillary Clinton.

Limbaugh's rationale? Obama's momentum had morphed into a genuine grassroots movement, and it had to be stopped at all costs - even unto the gross hypocrisy of asking die-hard Republicans to change their party registrations and cast their malicious votes for Hillary Clinton to poison Obama's candidacy.

Is Limbaugh's plot to defeat the first African-American candidate for the presidency: (A) insidious or (B) nefarious? Probably, both.

Come to think of it, is Operation Chaos really Limbaugh's plan at all - or was it designed by somebody else? Who knows - other than Limbaugh and his co-conspirators?

That said, James Carville and Mary Matalin are worthy suspects. Carville is a close and long-serving factotum for the Clinton family. Carville's wife, Matalin, is a top-ranking Republican operative who works in the Bush White House. It is well documented that Matalin is a longstanding ally and admirer of Rush Limbaugh. Matalin has appeared on his show to tout her appalling books. The two are frequently photographed at right-wing cocktail parties. They appear to be on warm and friendly terms.

The night after the Pennsylvania primary, Limbaugh crowed,

"What Obama has to do is go out and say this [Hillary] win is artificial and this win is phony because of Operation Chaos. He needs to go out there and say, 'Why in the world is everybody taking this seriously? Rush Limbaugh had his listeners register as Democrats for one day to go vote for Hillary to prolong this. We're letting Limbaugh get away with making our party look like it's in a total sewer and a mess. This victory in Pennsylvania is illegitimate, is undeserved because Democrats did not vote for her. Republicans did."

QED. Republican operatives working with Hillary Clinton's campaign have introduced a new mechanism into the presidential nomination process: flooding the polls with Republican crossovers.

Of the final primaries, Indiana and Montana are both "open" elections - where members of any party can vote for any candidate. In Indiana and Montana, Limbaugh's Republican crossovers will be out in force to sabotage Obama by voting for Clinton.

Since Limbaugh is claiming that thousands of Republicans are capable of changing their party affiliation to corrupt the presidential election process, none of the other closed primaries are above suspicion.

The entire 'democratic' system in the United States of America is broken. From Republican crossovers to Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S, Katherine Harris who dealt the death blow to democracy in Florida and J. Kenneth Blackwell who sabotaged the election of 2004, America is staggering toward its new status as a Mugabesque nightmare ruled by invisible Leviathans, audible Limbaughs and desperate, presidential campaigns embroiled in vendettas that would make Michael Corleone cringe.

Follow Michael Carmichael on Twitter: www.twitter.com/alchemistoxford

While the title might sound odd, Limbaugh's insatiable ego will not allow him to resist tarnishing Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions with a strong dose of reality -- as well as his confession t...
While the title might sound odd, Limbaugh's insatiable ego will not allow him to resist tarnishing Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions with a strong dose of reality -- as well as his confession t...
 
 
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02:10 PM on 05/02/2008
How dare the drug addled gasbag, Rush Limbaugh have the balls to call himself the commander of operation chaos, and refer to his troops in the battle. Here is a coward that did everything he could to get out of military service, It's bad enough he is the premiere chicken hawk in the country, But to even pretend he is in command of something is disgusting.
10:31 PM on 04/26/2008
I don't agree with this strategy but I do find it quite funny that it is making people mad.

Where was the outrage when the Daily Kos started using this strategy? Rush didn't start it, he just copied it from a far left web site.
07:04 PM on 04/26/2008
I was a bit skeptical of his claims at first because registering as a democrat in PA had to be done before march 24th (IIRC.) I figured the impact would be limited but looking at the exit polls from cnn brings up something interesting

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/epolls/#PADEM (page 4 of 7)

15% of democrats say they would vote for mccain in the General Election ... 90% of that 15% voted for Hillary Clinton..

Interpret that at your own peril.
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06:34 PM on 04/26/2008
Rush Limbaugh should enter a hot dog eating contest. That's all he's good for from an entertainment value standpoint.
06:32 PM on 04/26/2008
When Rush realizes Hillary will win a state he rushes, excuse the pun, to ask his listeners to change thier voter's status to vote for her to throw the election and create chaos. He is such a blow hard. Anyone who believes that Rush has this kind of control over anything must be experiencing "better living through chemistry."
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Snowball
05:28 PM on 04/26/2008
Indiana does not have open primaries, in fact, what Limbaugh advocates, switching parties to sabotage elections is a class-D felony here. Operation Chaos is indeed despicable, it is also illegal.
07:01 PM on 04/26/2008
What is a class-D felony and how can the "switchers" get caught?
Operation Chaos could end in Indiana???? Please say it is so!!
08:20 PM on 04/26/2008
It wasn't even Rush's idea, it was the Daily Kos that started this game when they tried to have Dems vote for Romney to keep him in the race longer.

What goes around comes around I guess.
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AmbroseChapel
05:27 PM on 04/26/2008
The people that are doing this, Rush's apostles... could care less about McCain. They will have their own battle in 2012. The democrats are are in the process of settling which direction their party is going. We saw signs of a shakedown in the Republican race early in the process. The Republican party is reaching a boiling point. John McCain is certainly not the voice of the Republican party. Many Reps know that McCain doesn't represent the party just as Bush doesn't. Many Democrats know that Clinton doesn't represent their party. People on both sides are fed up with party leadership. Career politicians have taken advantage of their bases and they are starting to pay for it. The Democrats are getting hit first. The Republicans will be next.
03:35 PM on 04/26/2008
I think it is treasonous. Rush Limbaugh IS having an effect on our primaries. I think it did in PA. I have a cousin in NC, who is a McCain supporter. He, and others, are voting for Hillary on May 6th. I live in Indiana, and I'm afraid the same will happen here, on the same day. As close as the race is, here, it could give Hillary an unearned win. This kind of conspiracy is deplorable!!
08:22 PM on 04/26/2008
Hey Zoolie, was it treason when the Daily Kos did the same thing?
08:34 PM on 04/26/2008
Rush just doesn't have the kind of influence needed to affect candidate nomination. From what I've read here, he has been pretty well marginalized and his listenership has plummeted, so everyone is getting all excited for nothing. Maybe a few folks will heed his advice, but can't be enough to make a difference.
10:34 PM on 04/26/2008
Rush Limbaugh Show had a minimum weekly audience of 13.5 million listeners, making it the largest radio talk show audience in the United States.
11:14 PM on 04/26/2008
If Rush has had No Influence whatsoever, then what does that say about Senator Obama and his ability to Close the Deal?

He's got juice, but just not quite enough, which translates into a Loss either at the Convention, or the Election. Which one would you rather see him lose?

And considering how much worse our country has gotten since the Democrats have regained the House & Senate, Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" shows him to just be a Piker compared to what the Democrats have done, or Not done!!!

Because since they have taken over, all of us have REALLY PAID THE PRICE FOR IT!!!
03:01 PM on 04/26/2008
Ditto.
02:11 PM on 04/26/2008
Thank you, thank you for writing such a great article! I have said the same thing. We are officially a "broken country". Such a shame. However, I am still wondering WHY this is not considered Voter Fraud? The MSM has to take up the challenge of taking on the likes of Limbaugh and friends and not letting this go! I can't believe that---with the exception of Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart---the MSM is ready and willing to let this all transpire as if nothing was happening. Is the MSM also going to ignore Limbaugh's threat to have his minions start a riot in Denver?
08:23 PM on 04/26/2008
Because you have to prove that each voter did it with an intent to sabotage the election. Do you think the DA in your state wants to waste 10 years going through all those cases?
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Nutcase
From Nashville, Tennistan.
01:54 PM on 04/26/2008
Rush has again proven that he has no love for this country and the precepts upon which it was founded. He is ready and willing to play games with the system. He wants to distort the process in order to get what HE wants - the citizenry be damned. This fits perfectly with his call for 1968-style riots in Denver. Perhaps he should be arrested for inciting to riot.

Ich denke, folglich bin ich ein Populist.
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AmbroseChapel
01:16 PM on 04/26/2008
All of this exit polling is what it is... a conversational piece. I really wished they would have added 2 simple questions to their list.
1. If you voted for Senator Clinton would you vote for her in the general election?
2. If you voted for Senator Obama would you vote for him in the general election?

I think this defuse some arguments and provoke some more.

What do I know I'm just a voter.
03:38 PM on 04/26/2008
They'd lie. What they are doing is illegal, but hard to prove.
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AmbroseChapel
05:19 PM on 04/26/2008
I wonder if they would lie. People who are doing this sort of thing relish in it's success or perhaps impact would be the better word.
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BlueOnBlue
We're in this together
12:08 PM on 04/26/2008
Limbaugh is trying to boost his own image. The proportion of Republicans who crossed over to vote only to create "chaos" was small.

My Pennsylvania county (Chester) had one of the largest proportions of crossovers. Out of a voter base of 300,000+ there were 12,000 crossover registrations or which 6,000 had been Republicans. The rest had been independents, Greens or other parties.

Despite the large number of crossovers, our county went strongly for Obama.

I helped in the registration drive and I know we did not get big numbers of registrations because of Rush Limbaugh. We got them by enlisting Republicans who had been voting Democratic for years, by finding those who had become disgusted with the Republican Party and by the tireless work of mainly Obama volunteers.

By the way, a good friend of mine is a solid Republican and he works at our polling place. He said he knew of a very few Republicans who were crossing over for Rush.. His word for them was "despicable."
03:19 PM on 04/26/2008
I think Limbaugh is deluded as well.

Most of the PA Republicans who voted in the Democratic primary went Obama.

He's been inciting riots in Denver this summer on his show this week.

He needs to be investigated and fined but something tells me it's not going to happen.
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Kassandra
Your micro-bio is empty
11:49 AM on 04/26/2008
Great. Now we get scare tactics from the progressives.

Frankly, I don't believe Rush has the clout to get Republicans to do this. I can just see my Neo-Con brother fainting at the very thought of voting for a Democrat...even at the instigation of his favorite "comedian".
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tdpubs
Content publisher for small business marketing
12:35 PM on 04/26/2008
I't not a new scheme. It's been done for decades. It's been done by both parties. Please don't compliment these people with originality. The voting machines are just another version of the old ballot stuffing trick. These people who pervert the system have no claim to conscience.
They are by the very definition, anti-American. They have no love of country, they hate to pay taxes because it might somehow help other people. They believe that they know what's best because they make a great deal of money.

There are people like this in every country. We just need to stay vigilant and call them out when we see them. We need to let them know why they are anti-American and why subverting the spirit of the law if not necessarily the letter of the law is traitorous.
11:45 AM on 04/26/2008
I don't pay much attention to Rush but trying to push Republicans voting for Hillary is ridiculous. I don't think it changed the results one bit.
12:35 PM on 04/26/2008
Conservative talk radio in Austin is KLBJ AM. On the day of the Democratic Primary talk show hosts fielded calls all day long reporting that the lines at the polls early in the day were filled with known Republican voters. I realize that is anecdotal evidence, but I listened to it for hours and the trend was definitely there. The motivation was there also because the only game in town was in the democratic race ... and Rush did claim credit. Now did Clinton receive 100,000 votes from Republicans? I believe serious research could prove or disprove this theory but that won't be known until long after we have elected a new president.
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AmbroseChapel
01:18 PM on 04/26/2008
I don't think it would have pushed Obama to a victory. I do however believe it would have changed the margin of victory and let's face it that's all anybody was talking about anyway.