Posted on 11/09/2008 4:57:38 PM PST by firebrand99
Conservative radio buffoon Rush Limbaugh thinks of himself as an ace strategist and so he thought he was being extremely clever back in March when he launched "Operation Chaos" an effort to undermine frontrunner Barack Obama's chances in the fall election by prolonging the Democratic primary season and forcing Obama to deplete his resources early. Rushbo, accordingly, urged his conservative Republican listeners to take advantage of open primaries in many thats that allow non-Democrats to participate and vote for Hilary Clinton in order to drag the race out as long as possible. Brilliant eh? And how mischievous!
Unfortunately the Limbaugh his plan was too clever by half and has backfired.
DNC chair Howard Dean has talked about the importance of a "50 state strategy" for the past four years and Obama embraced the idea but it was the prolonged primary season that allowed Obama to implement it by virtue of necessity as the never ending race forced him to recruit ground organizers and campaign in red states that are usually flyover states for the Dems such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana. When the fall campaign came around, polls showed Obama competitive in states that the Democrats had long written off as a result of his spring campaigning and allowed him to use ground organizations left over from the primary season in order to keeps those states competitive forcing McCain to campaign in states which should have been sure things for him. Moreover, Obama won North Carolina and Indiana and thereby assured himself the presidency thanks, in no small part, to Rush Limbaugh's efforts.
Get lost homer!
That’s my feeling. I don’t think, in the long run, it made a lot of difference in the Dem candidate. Obama was set up to win no matter what, and Hillary was actually blindsided by him and nothing could have helped her at that point. He was even more aggressive and corrupt than her own husband, which is saying a lot.
My only sense was that it distracted some GOPers from the important task of getting a good candidate of our own.
Peddle this garbage somewhere else. Rush remains one of the most important conservative voices in this land, possibly THE most important.
Exit polls showed that Obama did better among women in 2008 than Kerry did in 2004 so no evidence that the PUMAs had any impact; just the opposite.
If Obama doesn’t have a mandate than neither did Bush who actually came in second in popular vote in 2000 and still did worse than Obama in 2004.
Sniff,sniff...............
I never said a word about President Bush. Zero is a fraud and he doesn’t have a mandate. He and trolls like you will not unite us. Get ready. It’s gonna be a ride.
IBTZ!!!
Rush like most of us did not have a dog in this hunt. The nominee was a universally detested Rino who could only convince part of the base to vote for him by picking an acceptable VP. Rush’s distaste for McPain is well known among any who listen to him even occasionally. Hillary would be the preferred demonrat over the commie bastard.
Go back to DU where you belong.
So Rush trying to keep Hillary competitive and in the race actually won it for Obama? Ooooookay.
Don’t forget, they’ve voted Republican for the last 30 years until this election.
Blowback?
He must be a DU troll...this is what they do to each other over there...
Get lost, liberal ahole.
these trolls need to be flushed down the drain
Indiana? Obama didn’t win Indiana.
Extending the race actually allowed Obama to build ground teams in red states, gave him face time there, and allowed him to be competitive in states that Dems haven’t been competitive in for 40 years.
I know you didn’t say anything about W but the point stands. Obama has more of a mandate than W ever did and more of a mandate than Bill (who never came close to 50% of the vote).
“So Rush trying to keep Hillary competitive and in the race actually won it for Obama? Ooooookay.”
Extending the race until June forced Obama’s campaign to campaign and build an organization in states such as Indiana and North Carolina which would normally not have been priorities in the fall. The campaigning also raised Obama’s numbers in these states against McCain.
Traditional wisdom is that a difficult road to the nomination (especially by the incumbent president — although “difficult” has been dumbed down) leads to defeat.
1976 - Ford withstood stiff challenge by Reagan lost to Carter
1980 - Carter withstood stiff challenge by Kennedy lost to Reagan
1984 - Reagan no opposition reelected
1992 - Buchanan got surprisingly high vote totals in a number of states - Bush loses to Clinton
1996 - Clinton no opposition reelected
2004 Bush no opposition reelected
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