WS Journal: The Limbaugh Effect on Clinton's Texas Win

[JPZenger]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/03/06/the-limbaugh-effect-on-clintons-texas-win/?mod=googlenews_wsj

Excerpt:

"The Limbaugh Effect on Clinton's Texas Win.

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh led a campaign to have his Republican followers in Texas cross party lines and vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the state’s open primary last Tuesday...some locals are convinced it was a false win bolstered by dirty politics. Laura Jean Kreissl, an accounting professor at West Texas A&M University, served as an election official in Canyon, Texas on Tuesday. She contacted the Wall Street Journal to report the hijinks she observed at the four precincts that voted at her polling location.

Of the 181 voters she personally dealt with, 70 offered that they were "Rush Limbaugh voters" who were there to cast ballots for Clinton. "I’m here to vote for Hillary Clinton, I want to see the Democratic Party implode," one voter told Kreissl, she recounted in an interview. "I was just stunned," she said. "As an election official we can’t say anything. We just jot them down and let them vote."

Kreissl, an Obama supporter, said she kept rough counts, but her fellow poll worker, a Clinton supporter, both estimated that as many as two-thirds of the voters were Limbaugh Republicans turned Clinton voters. About 800 ballots were cast in total there. "I’m an accounting professor, I know numbers pretty well," she said.

Kreissl ... at the caucus ... said she personally checked in 20 Obama supporters and 17 Clinton supporters. Of Clinton’s 17, 10 identified themselves as Rush Limbaugh voters, she said. She’s convinced the Limbaugh voters turned the tide in favor of Clinton. "I don’t think we were an isolated case by any means," she said. "I think it was very widespread across the state."

[peacebird]

1. Many Repubs who voted for Clinton said they needed to go home and shower

Limbaugh had called for his listeners to vote for Hillary, because she was easier for McCain to defeat.

[DJ13]

2. Notice the lack of comment your post got from Clinton supporters?

The same Clinton supporters that has railed against Obama for saying he wants sincere Republicans voting for Democrats?

Dead.

Silence.

[alarimer]

10. Well these were hardly sincere.

I dislike open primaries for this reason. And why should independents, who refuse to pick one party or the other, get to help choose either party's nominee?

[yellerpup]

3. My dad did the same thing his whole life

Registered as a Democrat so he could act as a spoiler in the primaries for the Republicans. When I turned 21 he went into the voting booth with me and pulled the lever for Nixon. I protested that I wanted to vote for Humphrey and he laughed. He said, "You don't have any business voting if you're going to vote for that liberal sum'bitch." Daddy's dead now. I don't miss him.

[Demeter]

13. He Broke the Law Being in the Booth With You

I'm surprised nobody arrested him.

[yellerpup]

14. I didn't know that.

He told the election worker that he intended to go in with me because it was my first time. This was in the HS were I had graduated 3 years earlier so everyone knew both of us. No one objected. I would have if I had known he was going to rob me of my vote, but I didn't know what his intentions were. I learned then that you can never trust conservatives no matter who they are.

[silverweb]

4. I suspected as much.

These same Clinton voters would not go so far as to caucus for her, though, which explains the complete reversal of percentages and Obama win in the caucuses.

[Bok_Tukalo]

5. Limbaugh could not even affect the Republican race

I doubt he can do anything about the Democratic race.

[madrchsod]

6. i think there was some problems in ohio

with the limpballs voters. i just caught a bit of the problem on air america today and did`t think much about it....maybe there is something about this story

[kristopher]

7. I wonder if anyone can find a way to isolate this effect.

If the county by county demographics were compared to similar counties earlier in the process, we could probably get a better handle on the Republican crossover that is running from from the Republican meltdown and these that are just engaged in trickery.

[CookCountyResident]

8. The reverse seemed to be true in the earlier primaries

where there were indications that the "vast-right wing conspiracy" members were coming out to vote against Hillary.

[spag68]

9. Rethugs

should be careful what they wish for, wither of the dems. will beat McLaim. If our party is not satisfied throw whichever one it is out, and elect the other in four years. Either one will get us moving in the right direction, and we need at least moderate scotus appointees.

[tinrobot]

11. So, when Republicans vote for Hillary...

...they're destroying the Democratic party.

When they vote for Obama, they represent his cross-party appeal.

[LVjinx]

12. Didn't we just hear about how Rush's time was over, when his urging to vote against McCain failed?

Now he's allpowerful again? What's up?

[roseBudd]

15. Same thing happened in the GOP counties in SW Ohio