Limbaugh's Operation Chaos Plays Role In Pennsylvania Election Results

IT WORKED!

Operation Chaos Affects PA Vote







After weeks of on-air mischief by Rush Limbaugh, it appears his listeners really did come through for Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, clearly boosting her margin over Barack Obama. The resulting 10-point win over the Illinois senator has reshaped the Democrat primary, with Hillary now looking stronger than she has in ages.

According to news reports, a large number of newly registered Democrats affected the outcome, though networks seem to disagree on whether that helped Obama or Clinton.

Either way, there's no denying the role of Rush's happily subversive Operation Chaos. From WTAE in Pittsburgh:

There are 5,400 more registered Democrats in Westmoreland County this election day than there were in the November general election.

Both campaigns for Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have spent a lot of time and money seeking out Democrats and so far, the turnout has been huge.

"I voted for Obama," said Democratic voter Angela Rullo. "I think he's going to make a difference. I hope."

"I chose Hillary. I think she has more experience, more access to government," said voter Sara Hayden.

But not everybody registered so their favorite Democrat would win. By some estimates, hundreds of Republicans switched parties to keep the feud going between Clinton and Obama.

Republican Dave Rotigel is one of them. While voting on Tuesday, Rotigel wore a shirt that read, "Operation Chaos," which was inspired by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

"Now that Hillary is running, I decided to register Democrat so I could vote for the woman," said Rotigel, who said he does not like Clinton. "We need to keep this Democrat family feud going as long as we can. Hopefully, it will go to the convention floor and destroy the Democratic Party for five decades."

Further evidence of Rush's substantial role in yesterday's vote comes from this McClatchy wire service report:

One out of 10 voters said they'd changed their party registrations so they could vote in the primary, according to exit polls. They broke for Obama by a margin of nearly 2-1.

Yet late-deciding voters, including those who'd long been registered Democrats, broke heavily for Clinton.

One possible explanation was the flood of controversial news about Obama in recent weeks, as well as his defensive performance in a debate last week.

Another possible ingredient in the mix was mischief: Popular conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh for weeks urged his loyal listeners to register as Democrats to vote for Clinton and prolong an increasingly harsh battle that might benefit the Republicans.

The Pennsylvania vote could well do that, even if it remains a daunting challenge for Clinton to win the nomination.

And additional evidence of Rush's impact can be found here, here and here.


It isn't just El Rushbo who will benefit from Hillary's decisive victory, however: radio and cable talkers across the country now have a resurgent Clinton and less- stable Obama to provide entertaining fodder for many more weeks to come.

A victory by Obama in Pennsylvania would have sealed the deal for Barack and taken the presidential election off of talk radio's front- burner for the time being. And even if Hillary had won by a mere slim margin, her campaign would have ceased to exist.

As a result, there are thousands of presenters and pundits who should be thanking talk's titan for cooking up Operation Chaos, as the Pennsylvania outcome had Limbaugh's fingerprints all over it.


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Clinton image: AP