BLOG: Operation chaos
State of Disunion
By Lauren Harrell, Behind the Scences, Blogs
May 17, 2008 | noon
Rush Limbaugh has said a lot of crazy things in his day. His rants have infuriated and inspired throughout the years, and now he is trying to influence the Democratic primaries. Could the sad truth be that it's actually working?
There is no argument from either party that the Democratic race for the presidential nomination has taken an ugly turn. What started out as a relatively clean competition has turned petty, dirty and incredibly harmful to both candidates. After two more primaries and still without a definitive winner, some people are starting to wonder if every vote is cast for the right reasons.
Back in February, Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host we all love to hate, concocted a scheme to bring down the Democratic Party and ensure that John McCain wins the presidency. Encouraging Republicans to cross over and vote for Clinton, Limbaugh believes that the longer he can make the primaries last, the more divided the Democratic Party will become, paving a clear path for McCain to the White House. He cleverly entitled his mission “Operation Chaos.”
Excusing the fact that Rush relentlessly went after McCain during the Republican primaries and also divided HIS party even further, it is a pretty brilliant plan. However, is it working effectively? There is definite evidence pointing to Rush’s plan having at least some influence. According to CNN.com, in the Indiana Primary on May 6th, nearly one out of ten voters in the Democratic primary were registered Republicans. Of those people, two out of every three self-identified conservatives voted for Hillary.
Now, it’s been a while since anyone has talked about issues such as health care, but if you remember, Clinton’s plan called for mandated health care for all Americans. This, along with many of her other ideas, is the antithesis of the conservative philosophy. Hillary Clinton, the sworn enemy of Republican Party, seems to have magically won over Indiana’s conservative voters. It seems, at the very least, a little sketchy.
Unlike Indiana, North Carolina had only a semi-open primary. So while anyone can vote for any candidate in Indiana, only independents in North Carolina have a choice of which party to vote for. This prevents Republicans from crossing over to vote Democrat, it and throws a wrench in Mr. Limbaugh’s plan. To his dismay, I’m sure, Obama won the state by nearly double digits.
Of course, there are a number of factors that contributed to Obama’s win in North Carolina, not just that Republicans didn’t vote for him. Furthermore, Hillary may have won Indiana even without their support. Ultimately, “Operation Chaos” will not drastically alter who will win this election. To see if Mr. Limbaugh’s plan really had an effect, we will have to wait until November when the damage done by the candidates may come back to haunt them. Of course, the Democrats might be more resilient than we thought. At this point, the fate of the party is in the hands of its leaders.
The sooner this race ends the less damaging it will be to the party in the long run. It is up to the super-delegates to pledge their support one way or the other as soon as they can, rather than wait to see who is left standing. Time to step it up Howard Dean… Nobody likes a lame party.
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