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The Limbaugh Effect on Clinton’s Texas Win
WSJ ^ | March 6, 2008 | Susan Davis

Posted on 03/07/2008 6:08:22 AM PST by fightinJAG

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh led a campaign to have his Republican followers in Texas cross party lines and vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the state’s open primary last Tuesday. Why? Because Limbaugh thinks Republicans can defeat Clinton in a general election. Plus, watching Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama bloody each other in a nomination fight is pure sport for Limbaugh conservatives.

According to exit polls, Clinton won a notably higher number of Republican voters than she has in past open primary contests. Of the 9% of voters who identified themselves as Republicans in the Democratic Primary, Obama still edged Clinton 53%-46%. However, that margin is significantly slimmer than earlier contests. In Wisconsin’s open primary, for instance, Republicans broke 72%-28% for Obama. Similarly, in Virginia’s open primary, Obama was favored 72%-23%.

Clinton unquestionably secured a Texas victory, but some locals are convinced it was a false win bolstered by dirty politics. Laura Jean Kreissl, an accounting professor at West Texas A&M University, served as an election official in Canyon, Texas on Tuesday. She contacted the Wall Street Journal to report the hijinks she observed at the four precincts that voted at her polling location.

Of the 181 voters she personally dealt with, 70 offered that they were “Rush Limbaugh voters” who were there to cast ballots for Clinton. “I’m here to vote for Hillary Clinton, I want to see the Democratic Party implode,” one voter told Kreissl, she recounted in an interview. “I was just stunned,” she said. “As an election official we can’t say anything. We just jot them down and let them vote.”

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: hillary; openprimaries; rush; rushlimbaugh; talkradio; tx2008; txprimary
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To: D Rider

I believe in doing unto others as I would have them do unto me.

If Republicans want closed primaries, they should demand them and not shut up until they get them. That still doesn’t justify debasing one’s duty to vote.


61 posted on 03/07/2008 7:33:01 AM PST by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he used to say: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: Red in Blue PA
You NEVER assist evil. No good can ever come of it.

All respect has been lost for Rush.

He is a FOOL.

You know that half of his brain that he keeps tied behind his back that Rush brags about?

Well Rush, it is time you untied it because the half you have been using isn't cutting it!

62 posted on 03/07/2008 7:34:41 AM PST by JohnG45
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To: WL-law
I agree with your post.

When Hillary Clinton gets inaugurated I will blame Rush, Levin, Hannity, Ingraham et al. for electing Hillary.

When I endure 8 years of suffering, having to watch this wretched, evil,screeching woman every day on my PC destroy my America, Capitalism, the free market that I love I will remember what Rush and Levin did.

I hate the Clintons and to have to watch them for 8 years destroy the U.S. and turn it into a socialist state, and let in hundreds of millions of illegals will be torture for me. I would have been happy to never have to see or HEAR that awful, evil, socialist, liberal woman Hillary Clinton again. Thanks Rush for nothing.

63 posted on 03/07/2008 7:35:46 AM PST by rurgan (socialism doesn't work. Government is the problem not the solution to our problems.)
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To: Night Hides Not
The GOP isn't smart enough to hold a closed primary.

It'd be interesting to hear you interpret the fact that in California, Republicans have a closed primary, and Democrats have an open primary.
64 posted on 03/07/2008 7:38:28 AM PST by Mariebl
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To: Cracker Jack
How can anything they do (other than follow the rules as written) be fair?

All very good points.

OTOH, I'm wondering if it isn't better for the Witch if they only TALK about doing a re-do. Then she gets the benefit of being the victim (again) and is able to freelance as to what the new results would have been and is able to motivate her supporters in the coming primaries by wailing about how even the DNC supports a re-do now, but they can't figure out how to do it.

Had she not won by the margins she did on Super Tuesday II, none of this discussion would never have come up. Howard Dean has never been so against something (the re-do) in his life (because it directly undermines his authority).

It's only because now the race WILL come down to the superdelegates---and they, by any means available, want to avoid deciding the ticket (although it is their duty to do so)---that the DNC is looking at the re-do as a way, perhaps, to take the matter out of their hands. I.e, get rid of this hot potato.

But the re-do would never have been seriously contemplated had Obama delivered more of a knock-out punch on ST II. So cross-overs definitely helped Hildy by increasing her margin.

65 posted on 03/07/2008 7:39:21 AM PST by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he used to say: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: Always Right

She apparently has not attended the West Palm Beach School for RAT Party Election Officials - Chad Division.


66 posted on 03/07/2008 7:39:36 AM PST by rod1 (uestion)
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To: bigred41

They WON’T vote for her...Again, she is the ONLY canidate that poll respondents say they cannot wait to vote AGAINST.

As I heard one guy say on a radio show, “I would crawl through glass naked to vote against Hillary.”


67 posted on 03/07/2008 7:41:42 AM PST by Moby Grape
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To: kabar

Because the Rat system is proportional, “winning” a race means very little.

What counts is the award of delegates and, therefore, the margin of victory or defeat.


68 posted on 03/07/2008 7:42:07 AM PST by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he used to say: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Suit yourself.


69 posted on 03/07/2008 7:42:58 AM PST by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he used to say: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: Scotswife

I think it’s exceedingly silly (and worse) to pawn around with our country’s future as if it’s some game of payback for what those meanies in the other party did to me.

If Republicans want closed primaries, get them.


70 posted on 03/07/2008 7:45:03 AM PST by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he used to say: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: fightinJAG
Years ago I was talking to a Marine recruiter about the troubles they were having in getting qualified recruits. One of the things he mentioned was that young men and women who had been on Ritalin and other drugs were ineligible.

When I asked why, he said "..... do you really want some kid on mind altering drugs driving a tank?"

With Rush's endorsement of and referring to romney as a conservative and his asking his Texas listeners to vote for hillary, I'm starting to wonder if I want Rush driving a tank.

71 posted on 03/07/2008 7:45:41 AM PST by deuteronlmy232
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To: fightinJAG

Another thing that bothers me is that many of us conservatives hate the Clintons and the last thing we want 8 more years of them especially with Hillary at the helm.

It just seemed to me that Rush and Levin were a little too enthusiastic and gleeful in telling us to vote for Hillary Clinton. It seems to me that Rush and Mark Levin don’t hate Hillary Clinton and are not disgusted at the prospect of 8 years of her as president and on TV every day. So why don’t they hate her? Something seems fishy here.

I emailed Rush and let him have it: elrushbo@eibnet.com


72 posted on 03/07/2008 7:46:32 AM PST by rurgan (socialism doesn't work. Government is the problem not the solution to our problems.)
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To: Muleteam1

Every crossover vote benefitted Hildy because it increased the margin by which she won.

In a proportional system, only the margin matters.


73 posted on 03/07/2008 7:46:34 AM PST by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he used to say: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: jonathan-swift2000

How mature!


74 posted on 03/07/2008 7:46:57 AM PST by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he used to say: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: WL-law

I agree 100%. This was one of the biggest political misculations ever. With a loss in Texas Hillary would have be done - out of the race and probably never to be a factor again.

Keep in mind that Obamamania has only been going on for 8-10 weeks and there’s 35 yet to go to the election. Hillary is right - he’s not bee fully vetted and 35 weeks is a long time for the press to nose around, the Rezko trial, his voting record revealed to the uninformed. A vague message of change will not play in the general election. He was, by far, the most beatable of the two.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. I wonder is Rush really trying to help create turmoil with in the Dem party or ensure his rating that 8 years of HRC?


75 posted on 03/07/2008 7:47:31 AM PST by HonorInPa
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To: ncalburt
I find the relationship between the Chicoms and the Clintons far more insidious.
76 posted on 03/07/2008 7:47:31 AM PST by mimaw
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To: JohnG45

Word.

Sigh.


77 posted on 03/07/2008 7:47:38 AM PST by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he used to say: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: JohnG45
"I don’t know if you have noticed but Rush returned on Wednesday to considerable heat from listeners and the announced he was taking the next couple of days (Thursday and Friday) off. If you ask me he was running for the hills as now Hillary’s campaign has been revived and she is at least one step closer to being CIC.

You can't possibly be serious about that! Rush, had been scheduled to be off for ages in order to play golf on those two days.

Those of you who are criticizing Rush about suggesting that GOP voters cross over and vote for Hillary disagree with him so you didn't cross over to vote for her. Yet, you seem to think that other Republicans and conservatives, who did cross over to vote for her, lack your ability to make their own decisions about how to vote without Rush's advice. Maybe they happened to agree with him!

78 posted on 03/07/2008 7:48:10 AM PST by LucyJo
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To: Non-Sequitur
Which is why I do not see the Democrats holding new primaries in Florida or Michigan. If they did every Republican in the state would cross over and vote, and the results would be meaningless to the party.

Even in open primary states, you can't vote in both. Anyone who voted in the GOP primary would be ineligible to vote in the Democratic primary.

79 posted on 03/07/2008 7:48:19 AM PST by ReignOfError
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To: Impeach the Boy
You are 100% wrong...Almost EVERY poll shows that Hillary Clinton has the highest negatives of almost anyone in the WORLD...these polls suggest that she is IN FACT the more defeatable. 50% say they CAN’T wait to VOTE AGAINST her.

Wrong. The media will do a make-over for Hillary. Those numbers are written on the wind, and can change, and will change.

80 posted on 03/07/2008 7:48:54 AM PST by WL-law
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