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.”
Or not.
The article doesn’t mention (big surprise) how the Dems helped McCain in the early Republican primaries. Rush’s strategy was tit for tat.
Well, hopefully we are done helping Hillary. I don't like the idea of Republicans being responsible for resuscitating her campaign.
>> I talked to two of them the next day, and they confessed to crossing over to vote for the beast.
As I’m sure you know, I have no problem with crossing over... but I wonder why they crossed over for *her*. Did you ask them? I sure hope their reason wasn’t as mindless as “because Rush said it was a good idea”...
The independent vote wasn't enough — there was plenty of baggage with Romney, such as never coming clean about his religion, which many conservatives were skeptical about. Also, he was too slick -- the other Republican candidates ALL disliked him very much. It must have impressed Republican voters the same way.
Thompson didn't get a grassroots machinery started, he never gave himself a chance.
Giulani ran a incredibly stupid campaign.
I'm a conservative, not a big McCain fan, but he ran hard, and I give him credit. I don't think the Democrats put him there — the other candidates weak campaigns did...
They both basically admitted they crossed over to “do as much damage to the (d) ticket and help the (R) cause” by making the dims continue to spend $$$s on ads attacking each other before the convention. FWIW, neither of them listen to Rush.
Boy are we really gonna feel stupid when Hillary gets the nomination then goes on to win in November.
That's why I felt like it was absolutely appropriate for a conservative to meddle with the Democrat primary if they so chose. OTOH, if there's an effort to close the primaries in Texas, I wouldn't really have a problem with it, but I know that any such effort would probably be led by Dems who would have themselves crossed over had the primary been earlier.
Oh, she had to dig for it. It was buried deeper than an expired MasterCard.
>> They both basically admitted they crossed over to “do as much damage to the (d) ticket and help the (R) cause” by making the dims continue to spend $$$s on ads attacking each other before the convention.
Whew... glad to hear that. So they and I agree on one of the acceptable outcomes. We just disagree as to the best way to bring it about.
IMO, from a conservative or patriotic viewpoint, there were defensible reasons for voting for any of the four viable candidates in the TX primary (as well as “dumb” reasons for voting for each). That’s the privilege of democracy; each of us can make up our own mind how to best use our vote.
all i can think is that conservatives have forgotten how the Clintons work... how many times was Bill down and out, only to come back alive and kicking... they are so afraid of Obama... in time, people are seeing him for the empty suit that he is... he is the weaker of the two... Hillary's negatives will not work against her in the end... libs vote for libs...
Well, I’d have had to shred mine if it had (d) stamped on it. I have always had Republican stamped on my voter reg card.
I’m just happy to have the primaries over so I don’t have to listen to “I am Hussein and I approve this message” or “I am the beast and I approve this message” for a few months.
I changed radio stations more than ever when I heard that trash talking coming on. Both of their voices are worse than finger nails on a chalk board.
Somebody once said that they could never vote for the Hildebeast because she sounded too much like their ex-wife.
He, he, he.
That is probably a very good assessment of her screech. She always sounds so bossy.
No, we had touchscreen. No paper, no muss, no fuss.
I deleted his link out of my “Favorites.”
If you can hang there for a few weeks then you’ll be surprised how much you never miss him or his rants, etc.
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