If you’re a Democrat, you should be absolutely outraged, incensed, and weeping with frustration at the prospect of tens of thousands of Republican voters entering your primaries in order to support the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.
These GOP pranksters are not voting for Clinton because someone put something in the water thus turning them from being rabid dog Clinton haters into slavish Hillary bots. Rather they are trying to keep Barack Obama from winning the nomination believing that Hillary will be easier to beat than the charismatic Obama.
For myself, I’m not so sure. My own guess is that Obama is going to be damaged goods by the middle of summer thanks to his relationships with Tony Rezko and his crooked cronies. He would be a much easier general election target for McCain who will be seen as a paragon of virtue next to Obama.
Regardless, Rush Limbaugh has been pushing this campaign for Republicans to game the system and vote for Hillary in Democratic primaries. What’s even worse for Democrats is that it seems to be working:
I have to say, I’m mystified by the large number of Republicans turning up in the Mississippi Democratic primary to vote for Hillary. They more than doubled their share of the 2004 Democratic primary, up to 13%. They were among Clinton’s best demographics groups—she won 75% of Republicans—and made up a significant portion of her overall support.Typically, it’s been the reverse: Republicans in the North turned out for Obama. And it’s certainly contrary to conventional wisdom that Southern Republicans bear special fondness for Hillary.
I’ll be interested in what the local press has to say about this. I don’t have a clear grasp of Mississippi’s traditions in crossing party lines, and there was no real GOP contest here, which may have increased the numbers.
There are smart people who think this is strategic voting, aimed at producing the weaker candidate—something Rush Limbaugh, in particular, has gleefully espoused.
This is a fun theory, but before it takes root, a couple of notes of skepticism. First, this is all based on quite small samples in exit polls.
Second, Rush wasn’t campaigning for Hillary in Mississippi.
Are you trying to tell me that 13% of Republicans in the state of Mississippi worship and adore Hillary Clinton? Are you nuts?
The Jed Report has an interesting breakdown showing the impact of GOP voters on Texas
As the number of Republicans in the primary has increased, Hillary Clinton’s share of the Republican vote has skyrocketed, going from a 69-31 deficit in January and February to a whopping 75-25 lead in Mississippi. Although Barack Obama’s share of the Republican vote declined, his absolute percentage did not change much, hovering around 3-4%. In other words, he was simply winning a smaller percentage of a larger pie.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.
How likely is it that these voters are Republican mischief makers and not true blue Hillaryites? Check the sun this evening. If it sets in the west, there’s a pretty good chance that there are tens of thousands of Republicans who are getting a huge kick out of throwing a monkey wrench into the Democratic primary process.
Dirty play? What, in this campaign? You’re kidding right? I give you Kos himself on the eve of the Michigan Republican primary:
Next Tuesday, January 15th, Michigan will hold its primary. Michigan Democrats should vote for Mitt Romney, because if Mitt wins, Democrats win. How so?For Michigan Democrats, the Democratic primary is meaningless since the DNC stripped the state of all its delegates (at least temporarily) for violating party rules. Hillary Clinton is alone on the ballot.
But on the GOP side, this primary will be fiercely contested. John McCain is currently enjoying the afterglow of media love since his New Hamsphire victory, while Iowa winner Mike Huckabee is poised to do well in South Carolina.
Meanwhile, poor Mitt Romney, who’s suffered back-to-back losses in the last week, desperately needs to win Michigan in order to keep his campaign afloat. Bottom line, if Romney loses Michigan, he’s out. If he wins, he stays in.
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.
That hasn’t stopped some whiners on the left from complaining about GOP dirty tricks:
It’s only going to get worse—Republicans will change parties when there is closed primaries and in open primaries, they will cross-over and vote for Hillary Clinton in increasing numbers.Effectively, this emerging pattern calls into question the validity of any voting from here on out, even in closed primaries. There’s just so much lead time before the next contests that Republicans have plenty of time to register as Democrats and monkey with our primary.
Imagine just how effin’ hard it will be to make sure revotes in Florida and Michigan don’t end becoming a huge clusterf**k…
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.
The Kos gambit proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that if the shoe were on the other foot, the netroots would be having a gay old time organizing and getting their minions to the polls to vote for one Republican or another. I hardly think the crocodile tears being shed here should make any Republican feel sorry for the Democrats and the pickle they are in – trouble entirely of their own making.
From their cockamamie caucuses to the perfidious proportional representation plans to the very idea of so many Super Delegates having the nomination in their hands not to mention the Michigan and Florida fiascos all point to a party besotted with political correctness, sacrificing winning on the altar of “fairness” and “diversity.” How “fair” is the caucus system really? And “diversity” is just another way to pander – again, at the expense of what elections are all about; winning.
We ain’t playing “Go Fish” here, folks. This race is for keeps. If the Democrats ever start acting like that is the case, Republicans will stay away and Democrats will come up with a viable nominee.
Otherwise, Democrats will continue to be toyed with while the GOP chortles with glee over what magic they have wrought.
1:26 pm
I’m not sure Hillary would be easier to beat than Obama…maybe.
Mostly, I just like seeing it close. I love that they’ve got the extra weeks and primaries to rip each other apart.
Nothing would be better than a bloodbath in Denver.
1:31 pm
Why is it whenever I tune into TV News these days I’m left with the impression the TV media people think Rush Limbaugh, not John McCain, is the Republican nominee?
1:43 pm
“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”
For the Clintons who were so useful in attacking ‘All thing Republican/Conservative’ and dividing a Nation, they don’t seem to garner much love and appreciation from those who have benefited most from the Clinton’s destructive machine; her political party made them now, they hate them. Yet, the rest of us are forced to clean up their mess.
3:18 pm
It doesn’t matter. Your ilk has screwed up everything so badly over the past eight years that no one in their right mind would ever vote Republiker again.
Baghdad Bush is a terrorist: he’s used the “War on Terror” as a bludgeon to attack domestic political opposition, he’s made friends with dictators like Hosni Mubarak and Pervez Musharraf when he should be declaring them our enemies, he has taken us on the tragic detour of Iraq, he’s sacrificed the goodwill of all nations and the leadership of the Free World, he’s failed to hold America out as a special nation that doesn’t torture its prisoners and that shuts down the world’s Abu Ghraibs instead of running them, he’s neglected to stand with those spreading democracy and prosperity to the world’s darkest corners.
Save your crocodile tears for your fellow Repugs. You guys & gals are toast. Goes great with the koolaid you all have been drinking.
3:29 pm
Turnabout is a b**ch ain’t it?!?
We got John McCain from them and we are now p*ssing on their parade (coronation?).
Gotta love it. Whoever comes out as nominee, they are damaging each other and we get to stand by and chortle.
3:55 pm
GAming “the system” is scurrilous no matter if it’s Kos or Rush promoting it. The “system,” in this case, is our sacred constitutional duty and right to vote our conscience. Those who toy with it so cavalierly are shameful opportunists—and are disrespecting our single common heritage—the constitution.
IN the end, whether dems or GOP folks win in November, it will be phyrric in nature having knocked one more brick out from the things that makes us great.
4:04 pm
You neglect to report that the Democrats did it to themselves as well in New Hampshire, with all the reported buses of out of state “voters” packing the primary just to make sure that the “proper candidate” won. It plays many ways here.
I live in NC. I will vote in the primary, but my party has already decided who will run for President.
What everyone thought would happen on the Republican side has happened to the Democrat side. Interesting irony.
4:17 pm
It stinks, and I know of Democrats in Philadelphia who conspired against Republicans in the same way—by crossing party lines to vote in a Republican primary. There should be stricter rules for all states. However, there’s never before been enough cheesy cross-voters of either party to do much damage. Obama is winning, has effectively won, the nomination. And many Republicans came out to vote for him just cuz they admire him.
4:30 pm
You folks in the republic party are so dang clever. How will we on the left ever beat you cheetoh-stained Einsteins?
How?
I’ll tell you how.
With our right arm tied behind our backs.
What a bunch of chumps you all are.
Enjoy President Obama.
Harharhar.
I am terribly sorry but this is an adult website. If you would like to visit again, please get written permission from your mother along with a copy of your birth certificate. Otherwise, go back to your sandbox and impress the living hell out your little 7 year old friends. You sure aren’t doing much impressing here.
Ed.
5:10 pm
While I, too, find eastriver childish I have to agree that John McCain has effectively locked up second place in the general election. It’ll be closer if it’s Clinton vs. McCain, but McCain will still be in a position of having to stay on the far right, where he’s never really been until this year and alienating moderate republicans and independents or watching his base stay home.
Right now he’s running on Bush’s tax cuts, Bush’s war and Bush’s pandering to hispanic illegals. He’s even started sucking up the the Christian right the way Bush did. This country simply isn’t going to vote for four more years of the same old same old.
5:14 pm
Tommo…
It is folks of your ilk that keep putting forth such stupid thoughts that drive me up the wall.
“Baghdad Bush is a terrorist: he’s used the “War on Terror†as a bludgeon to attack domestic political opposition, he’s made friends with dictators like Hosni Mubarak and Pervez Musharraf when he should be declaring them our enemies, he has taken us on the tragic detour of Iraq, he’s sacrificed the goodwill of all nations and the leadership of the Free World, he’s failed to hold America out as a special nation that doesn’t torture its prisoners and that shuts down the world’s Abu Ghraibs instead of running them, he’s neglected to stand with those spreading democracy and prosperity to the world’s darkest corners.”
1. If people try to force unionization of a new government agency dedicated to protecting America as a condition for support, they should be called out on it.
2. How do you rectify calling other people our enemies with your charge of sacrificing the goodwill of all nations? Were you a fan of the Axis of Evil? Did you cheer when he created it? Or, is this just a case of him saying tomato, you saying tomahto?
3. He’s spread democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq…where those corners not dark enough for you or did you have something else in mind?
5:57 pm
#9
What exactly is a chee-toh?
Rick, some of us are gaming the system. We may be dumber than bricks here in Texas, but the state wasn’t run for 50 years by the Democrats without our having learned a few things about politics. A bunch of Republicans crossed over and voted for Hillary because we believe her incredibly high negatives may make her easier to deal with in the general election. I know a number of people who did so. None of them crossed over because Rush suggested it. The MSM wants so badly to believe that the folks on the Right are morons who will blindly follow suggestions of right-wing radio, no matter what. Wrong! I am at work when Rush is on, but I haven’t really listened to him in years, although he is right on a lot of the time.
The Dems are where they are because they think they are the annointed, and when they lose, its always because someone cheated, or was disenfranchised. They never, never have lost an election because more people simply voted Republican, and they can’t stand it when the country doesn’t fall mindlessly into their rapsodic chants for “fairness”
and “diversity.” So they try to structure systems in ways that will allow them to come out on top, no matter what the circumstance. Did no one in the Democrat party see a red flag when states as large as Michigan and Florida were told their votes would not count? Of course they did, but they never thought Obama would be where he is today, and now they are hoisted on their own petard.
You are right, this business is serious, and for keeps. But pardon me if I smile a little bit when I see what is going on now.
6:38 pm
Personally, I agree with Rick about Obama’s being damaged goods. However, the longer the race goes on, the more likely it is that this will come out. If the race ends before the Dem convention, the MSM will ignore any revelations from the Rezko trial in its haste to canonize St. Barack—-as the patron saint of Hopeitude and Changeyness no doubt.
9:28 pm
I’m surprised you didn’t mention picture ID for voting, as well.
The Dems want “everybody” to vote, so they have their primaries open. The Reps should have more of their primaries for Registered Republicans only, and votes, not caucuses. (Although more complex preference ballots might be tried for multiple?)
I think Hillary would be much easier to beat—it’s OK to criticize her, and the MSM does so (some). The Liberal Fascist thought police will continue making it tough to criticize Barack, see Ferraro.
But in the November campaign, pro-victory and pro-life McCain will have two big positives. I think, and hope, it will be enough, but don’t know.
10:15 pm
The flexibility in the rules exist – because people forget – we are not in a two party system, it just seems that way, but more and more people are opting out of both parties on the left and right – to smaller parties.
Were do fiscal conservatives go after the religious nuts took over the Republican party and ran up the bill? Libertarians?
If you feel that the Democratic liberals are right of Nixon (and if you look at policies they have a point)—true liberals can go Green Party.
There are also mom and pop parties that only exist in some states—local election laws very by state, so it can be impossible in some states not to be an independent, but in states with large independent voter blocks, alienating them by blocking them out of primaries causes a negative back lash. That tends to create a larger number of registered independents. That both large parties are trying to avoid.
11:06 pm
How humorous that lower-case ed cracks-wise over my perceived youth, when this site is obviously monitored by a gang of retarded toddlers.
You republic operatives make me giggle.
Keep doing what you do so well.
Even someone who agrees with you thinks you’re a juvenile. And the site may be “monitored” by a “gang of retarded toddlers” – you prove that point perfectly since you are one of the monitors – but I can tell you that I’m the only one who writes here.
Do you know what “monitor” means? Maybe you’ll get to that word next year when you enter the 5th grade.
Ed.
12:00 am
“He would be a much easier general election target for McCain who will be seen as a paragon of virtue next to Obama.”
Unfortunately, there really isn’t much of a story to the Rezko/Obama thing. Rezko might be crooked, but Obama isn’t automatically guilty by association. And if you really do want to go there, then I have two words for you: Keating Five.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five
2:56 am
Too bad repubs don’t have a candidate of their own to believe in, so they wouldn’t have to do such things for cheap, ultimately fruitless thrills.
Has Dubya really brought you to this ?
10:57 am
The cross-over voting shenanigans do make a good case for closed primaries, and I suspect that both the Republican and Democratic parties will hold more of them in the next election.
A closed primary doesn’t prevent someone from changing their party affiliation in order to vote for the opposite party’s weaker candidate, of course, but the extra step of having to formally update your voter registration does cut down on it.
In the interest of full disclosure, my spouse is an Obama supporter and deliberately switched from Independent to Democratic specifically to vote FOR him in the PA Democratic primary. However, I also know several Republicans who did the same thing because they’re tired of the same old, same old on the Republican side and can’t stand Hillary Clinton.
12:23 pm
Tom Grey,
I challenge you to give a proper definition of the term “Liberal Fascist.”
4:08 pm
i just shrug my sholders and figure that you expect nothing less from the republican party, who has shown time and time again to be more interested in their own power than the good of the republic.
9:34 am
I guess it’s politics and it’s a nasty game.
One comment from me – a foreigner: John McCane, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are all thoughtful intelligent people with a deep commitment to the United States and it’s people.
I have no doubt they would all make good Presidents, and am 100% certain they will be better than the present incumbent who sadly, wasn’t up to the job and should never have got the nomination in the first place.
12:38 pm
It appears that this method was already used against the Republicans. How else do you explain McCain?
4:37 pm
Wait a minute. Treading in the waters of the other party was a Democratic idea floated when the CW (as hammered home by the MSM) was that Republicans were unhappy with their candidates and the Dems were elated with their candidates. They even had POLLS to prove (think Dan Rather ‘proof’) it. Never mind that the Republicans who chose ‘none of the above’ were about the same % that chose Al Gore (about as ‘none of the above’ as you can get – if he couldn’t put it in from the two inch line the party’s going to let him try from the 3?) from the Dems. Then fate intervened, the roles were reversed and we get in your comments pouting and moaning. My 9 year old has a better understanding of irony then the Dems, if the comments here can be extrapolated to the larger population of Dems.
12:52 am
Republican,Conservative,Honorable,Ethical just really are words. Every since this Nation accepted Bush/Chaney to represent this nation, Integrity,Ethics,Honesty,Truth,Value Judgement,Accountability,Patriotism have all ironically become meaningless babblings.
Now we see Republican = Repugnant, “wolves in sheeps clothing”