MSNBC's Chris Matthews scolded approximately 71,000 Republicans for wasting their vote. During the Indiana primary coverage on Tuesday night, Matthews called it a Keith Olbermann-type special comment and spoke directly to the people who had responded to Rush Limbaugh's call for people to go out and vote for Hillary Clinton as a part of his "Operation Chaos."
Matthews noted that so many people have died for the right to vote that it is a shame for Republicans to use their vote on nonsensical mischief.
Of the more than 1.2 million Democratic primary voters in Indiana, Republicans voting for Hillary Clinton represented a little over 5 percent of the vote. In exit polls, the Republicans voting for Clinton said they would vote for John McCain in November.
Contrary to Limbaugh's wishes, Barack Obama had about the same amount of Republicans vote for him in Indiana. Fifty-eight percent of the Republicans voting in the Democratic primary said they felt Obama will beat McCain in the general election.
Since Clinton's win in the state was a little under two percent, all Limbaugh wound up doing was to cloud her win. Since Obama had already won North Carolina by 14 points, it turned out to be a bad night all the way around for Clinton.
Limbaugh hatched the ill-conceived plan on the air and was trying to establish a two prong attack. He attempted to maneuver Clinton into the nomination and then planned to berate African Americans for allowing the Democratic Party to disenfranchise them after the nomination was stolen by superdelegates.
However, because of the efforts of bloggers, and others, the general population knew what the mischief makers were up to. For instance, Rose Hinesley, a precinct inspector at a middle school in Indiana, implored Republicans who came in to vote to pick a GOP ballot.