McCain still can't seal the deal: Less than 80% in both IN and NC primaries

[Richard Tafoya]

Huckabee is still drawing double-digit turnout. Imagine what a Bob Barr/Huckabee Libertarian ticket would do to McCain in November.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#NC

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#IN

[db44]

Maybe if Republicans weren't out trying to cause chaos, the party wouldn't be headed for it.

Thanks, Rush! :D

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

(CNN) – How big of an impact did Rush Limbaugh’s ‘Operation Chaos’ have in Indiana? Did GOP voters really cross over to create havoc in the Democratic primary by voting for Hillary Clinton, as he’d asked his listeners to do?

Roughly one in ten of the state’s Democratic primary voters were Republican — and that group did vote for Hillary Clinton, 53 to 47 percent over Barack Obama. But hold on: registered Democrats, who made up two-thirds of Tuesday’s primary voters, gave roughly the same edge to Clinton, 53 to 45 percent. Only Independents — who made up about a quarter of the electorate — voted for Obama, 53 to 47 percent.

For whatever reason, self-identified conservative voters did overwhelmingly support Clinton – two out of three cast their votes for the New York senator.

[Richard Tafoya]

The reality of Limbaugh's Operation Chaos situation is that it's an excuse for him to avoid talking about McCain for a few months.

He doesn't support McCain, and his lemming audience will do what he says, so it's pretty easy for him to tell them, "Hey, I'm bored, let's go beat up on someone," and they will.

So he gets to avoid talking about his disdain of McCain until June, like the deceptive coward that he is.

[DoubleEdgeSword]

His latest? Superdelegates should vote for Obama. That's right. Rush thinks Obama is the weaker candidate and easier to beat in November. Here's his reasoning:
"Barack Obama has shown he cannot get the votes Democrats need to win – blue-collar, working class people," Limbaugh also said. "He can get effete snobs, he can get wealthy academics, he can get the young, and he can get the black vote, but Democrats do not win with that." http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
What a pandering, egotistical little snake. As if the superdelegates are going to listen to Rush Limbaugh... But of course, Rush will take the credit if Obama is nominated.

[Richard Tafoya]

That's the other squirrelly part of this sham of a show promo of his. From the beginning of the primary season, we were already seeing a huge exodus of former Republican voters crossing over to become Democrats. Republican party identification is at a generational, if not an all-time low.

So Limbaugh decides he can try and take credit for that by supposedly urging voters to cross over and participate in the Democratic primaries with the supposed goal of creating problems for the party.

The problem with that is that he's (as usual) taking deceptive credit for something he largely has no effect on. Millions of Republicans have walked away from the party and are now participating as Democrats for the primaries and likely for the general election. Rush has added a few thousand pranksters per state, but he's saying the whole tide is his doing.

I suppose when a Democrat wins the White House in November, he'll come up with some sort of sham reason to take credit for engineering that as well.

And his little fan base will eat it all up.

[db44]

What do you think the Blob will do if Barr decides to make things interesting?

[Richard Tafoya]

If he's at all sincere about conservative principles, he'll throw his support behind Barr.

But I don't think he's sincere about anything but self-aggrandizement.

The reality is that a Barr run would split off the right-wing base of the party. Pragmatists would scramble to get a Republican, any Republican, into the White House. Idealists would jump to Barr.

And centrists in both parties, much as Limbaugh and his lemmings like to pretend they don't exist, actually make up the majority of the rank and file. I'd expect something like a 75/25 Republican split between McCain and Barr. Maybe 80/20 if McCain doesn't do anything real dumb between August and November.

But in terms of sheer numbers, I expect Obama to lock up the nomination on the Dem side, and I expect a mostly unified party to turn out in record numbers in November to put a Democratic nominee in the White House, with or without Barr in the mix.

[db44]

I figure the same, and just thinking how nice it would be if Rush ruined the party in November.