“My recollection is quite the opposite — that “Operation Chaos” was about have Republicans vote for Obama in the Democrat primaries because there was no way Obama could win the general election. “
This is my memory too.
Operation Chaos was never about supporting any particular candidate. It was about registering as a Democrat once the Republican nominee was decided (which was fairly early) and then voting for whomever was behind.
The idea was to force Zero and Hillary!® to get nastier and nastier with each other, spend more money, and -- if possible -- drag out the fight all the way to the convention.
By the time most of us in late primaries could participate, that meant voting for Hillary!®. I did vote for her in the late PA primary. I've got the hat, too.