Obama Campaign Ready To Blame Rush For Poor Results

BLAME IT ON RUSH

Team Obama Has Operation Chaos In Scapegoating Position





*** NEW: RUSH COMMENTS ON OPERATION CHAOS OUTCOME ***
*** UPDATES BELOW: Obama Campaign IS Blaming Rush For Indiana Loss ***


Over the past several months, watching how the Obama and Clinton campaigns react to Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos has been every bit as fascinating as the "strategery" itself. Would they ignore his Republican crossover vote effort, or denounce it?

Late Tuesday, we saw the most interesting development yet, as the Obama camp unveiled a set of talking points that would scapegoat Limbaugh and Operation Chaos if the results didn't favor the Illinois senator. (Update: they have in fact chosen to use this tactic to explain the Indiana loss)

Though that approach turned out to be somewhat unnecessary (he won North Carolina, though there's no denying Rush's impact), that this scheme was even cooked up in the first place shows just how nervous Obama was going into Tuesday's vote. From the Washington Post:

Obama Campaign Sends Word from Rush

By Jonathan Weisman

Officially, the Obama campaign is upbeat about the evening, confident Barack Obama will emerge with his delegate math and his path to the nomination intact.

But then there is this: Before either North Carolina or Indiana were called, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton blasted out the transcript of Rush Limbaugh's radio blast. Limbaugh was bragging about his self-declared Operation Chaos, an on-going effort to encourage Republicans to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton and drag out the divisive, potentially debilitating Democratic nomination fight.

"I have ... been receiving field reports ... from people, commandos, operatives, reporting that they have followed orders and fulfilled their duty," Limbaugh crowed. In fact, some of the people show up and they ask for a Democrat ballot, and the poll worker says, 'Why, what are you going to do?' He says, 'Operation Chaos,' and they just laugh."

So there you have it. It's not on Obama if the race continues, the e-mail implies -- it's Rush's fault.

And from the Chicago Sun-Times, here's the memo itself:

Talking points on Limbaugh Crossovers

Limbaugh has been urging right-wingers to vote against Obama

* There really has never been any question that Senator Clinton would win Indiana, where she has the support of Senator Evan Bayh’s political operation and the demographics heavily favor her. But we saw today that perhaps her strongest asset was that Republicans believe she’ll be an easier opponent to beat in November.

* Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh has been urging his listeners to cross over and vote in the Democratic primary in Indiana to help Clinton’s chances at becoming the nominee.

* Reports from Indiana polling places confirmed that record numbers of Republicans were taking Democratic ballots to vote against Obama. And Limbaugh himself bragged about the success of his effort on his radio show today.

Republicans are desperate to face Clinton, because they know Obama will be harder to beat

* Let’s be very clear: the Republicans want to face Senator Clinton in November, because they know that Senator Obama will be a stronger nominee for the Democrats, and will help Democratic candidates down the ballot. Republicans are so scared of Obama that they’re actually skipping their own primary to vote against him.

* That’s a stunning testament to the threat that Obama will pose to Republicans come fall.

* If I were the Clinton campaign, I don’t think I’d be celebrating too hard tonight. Winning a state on the strength of voters who want to see you defeated isn’t exactly the kind of win you want—or the message you want to send to superdelegates.

Ickes Comments

Comments are beyond the pale—and a distortion

* This afternoon, top Clinton advisor Harolk Ickes said that if Barack Obama were the nominee, there might be a so-called “October surprise” that would hand the election the Republicans. Using this kind of fear tactic is simply beyond the pale—and a total distortion.

* Time after time, we’ve seen that the Republicans are desperate to face Clinton in the fall because they know that Obama would be a stronger candidate. That’s what brought Limbaugh listeners out in droves today to vote for Clinton.

* To suggest that Clinton would somehow offer less risk of an October surprise—at the same time as Republicans are actively working to see her nominated—is certainly curious.

Not the tactics Democrats want to see

* But leaving that aside, this simply isn’t the kind of tactic that Democratic voters and superdelegates want to say. As President Clinton himself said a couple of years ago, “if one candidate's appealing to your fears and the other one's appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope.”

Given his relatively strong showing in North Carolina, this talking points memo is going to come back to haunt Obama. Where he might have chosen to ignore Rush's Operation Chaos effort, he instead legitimized and even promoted the talk titan's strategy.

Interestingly, even the Huffington Post has also been forced to acknowledge the impact of Operation Chaos.

There's now little doubt the close result in Indiana has been due to Rush's on-air crusade. Even if he convinced just a few thousand GOP voters to cross over to Hillary, that alone could be her margin of victory.


NEW: Chris Matthews slams Operation Chaos participants during unhinged partisan rant

AND: Obama strategist blames Op Chaos for Indiana loss


ALSO: we're hearing that indicted former KGO libtalker Bernie Ward is set to accept a new plea deal that would send him to prison for 10-15 years. An announcement is expected sometime today (Wednesday).

FOR New England regional talk radio updates, see our other site.


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