As I recall, there was something called Operation CHAOS fomented by a certain "conservative" talk radio guy, somewhere on the East Coast. This blowhard was so convinced that Hillary would destroy the country if she got to the White House (starting with the White House furniture and table lamps, supposedly) that he urged his listeners to re-register as Demnocrats and vote for one of the other candidates in the primaries. This would then throw the Democrats into disarray and produce CHAOS, letting the Republicans have an easy walk to the White House.
Well, you see how that plan turned out.
Air ball, air ball!
Limbaugh had people re-register as Democrats to vote for HILLARY, not Obama. He did it because he said that the press would NEVER give Obama any kind of critical investigation, and that keeping Hillary in the race was the ONLY way to get any sort of criticism of Obama going, because McCain wouldn't do it and the press wouldn't do it.
Operation Chaos was aimed at getting out votes for HILLARY.
Also, Limbaugh NEVER claimed it would be a cakewalk to the White House, and has stated several times that conservatives would have to drag McCain across the finish line.
“Limbaugh had people re-register as Democrats to vote for HILLARY, not Obama.”
Every Republican I know who did this, actually voted for Hussein Obama, not Hillaroid, because she was considered “unbeatable”.
At any rate, he did urge his listeners to vote in the Democrat primaries, and if there were many following his orders it could have affected the Republican outcome (it's doubtful that many of Limbaugh's listeners would have otherwise been voting for Ron Paul, though).
I'm a bit foggy on when this strategy was started. Was it before or after McCain achieved enough delegate votes to secure the nomination?