His own little soap opera....
When I wrote that, I reminded you about a little mischief attempted by Daily Kos back in January, who tried to encourage Democratic voters to vote for Mitt Romeny, to assure that chaos would ensue for the Republicans.
From that february 28, 2008 post:
Back in early January, Daily KOS encouraged their readers to "cause mischief" in the Republican Primary in Michigan by saying Democrats "should vote for Mitt Romney, because if Mitt wins, Democrats win".
His logic:And we want Romney in, because the more Republican candidates we have fighting it out, trashing each other with negative ads and spending tons of money, the better it is for us. We want Mitt to stay in the race, and to do that, we need him to win in Michigan.
One of the Daily KOS readers (Andy Cobb) went as far as to create a YouTube video. (Found at YouTube, URL here)
That video received over 191,000 views and 33 blog reactions to that Daily Kos piece, according to technorati.
A little over a month has gone by and instead of the expectations shown by Kos himself with that previous post, the Republicans have a presumed candidate in John McCain and it is the Democratic candidates that are cutting each other's throats and infighting to the point of dividing their party.
Kos's little game didn't work out so well and while I have been hesitant to give Rush Limbaugh too much credit for the chaos within the Democratic party right now, it seems that Democratic supporters are more sure of the "Rush Effect" and they aren't very happy about it..... not at all.
Ole Jed Report provides some cool graphs to prove that Republicans are causing mischief and he wants it to stop!!!
In the abstract, there's nothing wrong with receiving votes from Republicans in the Democratic primary -- as long as those votes come from Republicans who are truly committed to a Democratic candidate. That appears to be the case with Barack Obama, who consistently does well among Republicans and independents in public opinion surveys.
Hillary Clinton's support from Republicans, on the other hand, is coming from Republicans who will not support her in the general election. They are simply wreaking havoc in the Democratic primary, hoping to further divide an already divided party, and perhaps even help Hillary Clinton win the nomination.
Jed goes on to declare:
The problem is that Republicans whose only goal is sabotage our nomination process are going to make this seem closer than it really is. And that's going to embolden Hillary Clinton to continue to make more attacks on our eventual nominee. And it's going to further divide the party. And maybe even cost us the election.
When I first heard about Rush's idea, I thought "that cheeky monkey!", laughed a bit and went on about my day, but as results starting coming in and more and more Republicans started voting for Hillary Clinton at the same time saying they didn't want her to win the general election, I asked in a follow up post if Rush was happy... and concluded that yes, he was.
Normally I would think this is a childish game, but this is a fight for the highest office in the country and I saw many Democratic supporters laughing and encouraging KOS's mischief back in January and you know what?
If Rush Limbaugh even played a small part in keeping the Hillary/Obama soap opera alive and seeing the type of hissy fits that some are throwing over it, I bet he is even happier today.
Jed isn't the only one giving Rush the credit either... TNR says, "But I think the mischief-making crossover vote is the best available explanation here. I don't recall much genuine fondness for Hillary Clinton among Republicans in the Deep South."
Who knew so many would like the idea so much. I don't think Republicans are doing it because Rush told them to, but I do think once they heard the idea, from Rush or someone else talking about it, some just might have thought, the more Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama attack each other, the better for the GOP.
After all, John McCain seems to be benefiting from almost every attack.
It might have been a stroke of genius after all.
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