I think they did not expect for things to backfire. While attempting to manufacture a movement, another movement rose up against them (the tea party). That has to really suck for them. They have spent countless billions to create and support something that happened for free for conservatives. unfortunately (for them), as with any movement against those with power, the more you try to stop is, the bigger it gets.
That’s what I’m getting at. They thought hope and change was the end of conservatism and constitutionalism. But it wasn’t.
Now they have a tea party movement to deal with, that they can’t compete with head on. And their media is dying, so their smears can only have so much impact.
Given all the things they’ve said(in the shadows of course) it would certainly make sense that this is the real goal of net neutrality.