Posted on 03/06/2008 9:01:19 AM PST by seanmerc
Republican crossover voters apparently helped win the Democratic primary in Texas for Hillary Clinton — with one in every 10 Democratic votes came from Republicans.
And they could have been heeding the call of top-rated radio host Rush Limbaugh, who had been urging Republican listeners to vote for Hillary to prevent the Democrats from unifying around Obama and to keep the two candidates battling each other.
“Hillary Clinton is back in the race, thanks in some small part to Republican voters mindlessly following the commands of radio entertainers and crossing party lines to vote for the candidate they view as weakest,” Bud Kennedy writes in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Wednesday.
According to exit polls, of the 10 percent of Democratic votes that came from Republicans, about 53 percent of the crossovers chose Obama and 46 percent went with Clinton, the Dallas Morning News reports.
But previously these crossovers had voted overwhelmingly in favor of Obama. And the exit polls also show that Hillary won handily among conservative voters, including many Democrats, 53 percent to 43 percent over Obama, reports the Web site Outside the Beltway — which also noted that “Clinton truly might have won the Texas primary on the backs of Rush Limbaugh listeners.”
Clinton’s overall margin of victory was just 3 percent — about 98,000 votes out of 2.8 million cast.
“Thousands of traditionally Republican voters helped swell the ranks of the Democrats,” the Morning News observed.
“Some crossed over out of support for Mr. Obama, others were simply dissatisfied with their own party’s choice. Still others supported Mrs. Clinton hoping that by helping extend the Democratic feud, they would leave their own party in a better spot this fall.”
Limbaugh claimed at least some of the credit for Hillary’s victory, saying on Wednesday: “What we did, if we did anything, is to create a bunch of chaos in the Democratic Party — and it worked.”
There were some precincts - mine included - that are very heavy (R) and they had over 50% voting in the (d) primary.
I couldn't have put that card back into my wallet if it had the d - word stamped on it.
I deleted his link out of my "Favorites."
It's your loss.
Rush won't miss you, but you'll grow more ignorant and bitter over time.
Your statement assumes that Rush's audience are the "mind numbed robots" that the drive byes all call us.
Rush puts out an idea, we listen, evaluate and make our own decision.
I'm a PA resident that switched parties so that I can vote in the demonRAT primary AGAINST the bitch, regardless of what Rush advises.
I listen to his program and MAKE MY OWN CHOICES.
Your choice is to whine and not listen, kinda like demonRAT logic.
That was the stupidest thing Rush has ever done. Texas and Ohio could have finished Her Thighness off. Now she lives to fight another day, and may beat Obama. Captain Queeg is going to LOSE in November, and I’d rather have naive fool Obama as president that evil corrupt bitch Hillary. We could have finished the Clintons permanently, but Rush had to shoot his mouth off and blow it.
I agree. There is no way, no matter how much bloodshed I'd like to see among the Dims, that I would vote for that bi$ch. I love Rush, but he was wrong, wrong, wrong on this one.
I understand the arguments that it may be better for McCain to go against Hillary rather than Obama, but my gut tells me, to paraphrase another poster, 'get her out and get her out now.'
I guess you wouldn’t mind if all the Democrats crossed over and gave Ron Paul the Republican candidacy...
I personally would like to this open primary crap go by the wayside. It really irritates me that dems gave McInsane a leg up in the early primaries — I really don’t like members of other parties calling the shots on who runs in the general election for a party they are’nt a member of.
Newsflash:
The Democrats and independents did cross over in the early states and give us McCain while those of us in the conservative base were trying to find a suitable candidate.
thank you! i have felt like a lone voice in the wilderness...
Republicans in Mississippi, North Carolina and Indiana (all open primaries) should cross over and vote for Obama. This would have the affect of helping him grow his lead over the Hildebeast. Then, when she steals it at the convention there will be more outrage than if the leader was closer.
Another thing that Republicans can do when they are voting in the Dem primaries is to vote AGAINST all Dem incumbents in the House and Senate. Maybe we can get a few of the knocked out there and would strengthen the GOP candidates chances in the general election.
Prove it with a valid internet link...
“”Don’t underestimate the machine/enabling media/dirty tricks. Limbaugh really picked a poor strategy this go round. She should have been booted off the campaign trail forever earlier this week.
thank you! i have felt like a lone voice in the wilderness...””
I agree with both of you!!! If we were going to have some of our folks cross over we should have had them taken Hillary out. I am worried that a rejuvenated Hillary will win both the nomination and the general election. then we will rally be screwed.
By the way, we have another chance to have Republican crossovers vote against Hillary in the Mississippi, Indiana and North Carolina primaries. They are open primaries.
>> There were some precincts - mine included - that are very heavy (R) and they had over 50% voting in the (d) primary.
All I know is, when I went in to vote (at an off-peak time), there were about 10 folks voting Dem — and zero voting R.
At the D caucus, there were about 200-300 total. The ones I talked to said this was very heavy turnout for a caucus. Most of those around me said they had never been to a caucus. Who knows how many were (R) crossovers; we didn’t talk about it for obvious reasons. In my precinct, the number of Obama supporters was ten to fifteen times the number of Hillary supporters.
Don't think so. The only difference this will make in my life is that I'll have to get my mother to tell me what to think.
He managed to get Republicans to keep Hillary in the race, hoping to cause chaos and a brokered convention.
He wasn't thinking far enough ahead though.
Now, Hillary is asking to get on the Obama ticket (despite what she said on NBC about only if she is on top of the ticket. She knows she won't ever get enough delegates).
Obama will bring her on the ticket, BFORE the last Democratic primary, because Hillary can raise a LOT OF MONEY for the ticket -- more than any other potential VP candidate.
As Rush always says, follow the money folks — only this time he failed to do it himself.
Follow the money Rush.
(and yes, I do listen to him, complete with commercials coming on the air every other minute).
A bot!!! Funny, very funny. Especially ‘cause I told Rush to suggest that repubos vote for Hillary. Jeez that was my plan before Rush started talking it up. He took my advice.
Thanks Rush.
What it did was to raise the hope, the feasibility of Hillary's campaign. AND, of course, prime the pump for increased contributed campaign funds.
What it did was prevent Obama from decidedly derailing the Hillary campaign, allowing her a regain momentum. Of course her remarks that she has 'captured' the big states, that she is more electable may influence the super-delegates to again swing to her camp.
What it did was place Hillary on the media's page 1, in the position enabling her to suggest Obama as her VP running mate, thus possible creating a truly formidable ticket against McCain.
What it did was deem to Hillary the 'comeback' title, presenting her with a persuasive argument for 'do-overs' for Florida/Michigan.
Okay:
McCain wins those who describe themselves as libs or moderates going away in NH.
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/vote-polls/NH.html
McCain wins the “independent or something else” vote in South Carolina.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21228202/
In fact, use that MSNBC link to look at all of the other open primaries. He always wins the indies.
A very good lady friend of ours was in the (R) line right in front of me when I voted and she said there was no way she was crossing over either.
Several conservative friends were there too, but their names were not on the (R) primary sign-in sheet. They had a “guilty” grin on their face.
I talked to two of them the next day, and they confessed to crossing over to vote for the beast.
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