Did Rush Limbaugh and Ted Haggard swing votes to the Democrats?

[kentuck]

Did these two well-known "conservatives" help the Democrats win the House and Senate? As we recall, Limbaugh mocked Michael J Fox on his web camera, waving his arms and "pretending" to have Parkinson's disease. That had to turn off a lot of Republican voters that were angry already. It may have helped the Democrats win the Senate in Missouri?

And Ted Haggard, the gay evangelist, and leader of the 30 million Evangelists in this country, was caught in sex and drug act that reflected on his whole evangelical movement. Rarely had we seen a hypocrite of such magnitude. This was at the time the Republicans were pushing hard to get out their base. They were running ads against "gay marriage" and so forth. Jesus may as well have walked into their Church and started whipping the moneychangers...

[EST]

1. I happen to think so, but how can it be proven?

[Journeyman]

2. When McCaskill claimed victory in the wee hours of November 8. . .

she credited Rush, in part, for the tremendous influx of money his idiocies generated for her campaign.

[MADem]

3. No, but I do think they did a great job SUPPRESSING the GOP vote.

They suppressed not in the sleazy way the GOP does it (phone jamming, fake calls telling voters their polling place is switched, threatening people who have gone to jail, lying about the dates of elections on flyers, passing out "Democratic" sample ballots with GOP names on them, e.g.) but by simply DEMOTIVATING people with their cruelty and mockery (Limpballs) and their lying, insincerity, willingness to cravenly use innocent family members as shields, and blatant hypocrisy (Teddy Boy).

[SCantiGOP]

4. without a doubt

There is ample anecdotal evidence that the MJ Fox/Rush business swung votes in Missouri, both switches to the Dems and non-voting by Reps. Same thing with the gay reverend. I have said that Rush and my home state of South Carolina should be given credit for the win. The GOP has had to go so far to keep the evangelicals in the South pacified that they are making themselves unelectable in the rest of the country.

[gratuitous]

5. A few, perhaps

But then, the voters swing both ways, it appears. Not unlike . . . Bad gratuitous! No scotch.

[AllegroRondo]

6. Definitely a factor in Missouri

one of the most effective ads running the last weekend was about the stem cell bill.

It said "who do you trust for information about the stem cell bill? These organizations that support it" (roll long list of organizations like AMA, Christopher Reeve Foundation, etc)

"Or this man?" (show tape of Rush doing his wobbly Parkinsons dance)

[ellacott]

7. I believe Rush and Drudge helped us regain the Senate

Rush for his attack on Fox and Drudge for his healines regarding Webb's book.

Once the facts came out in both cases people realized how damaging the allegations were and that they were being twisted for political gain.

[Mike Daniels]

8. Limbaugh may have gotten some fence-sitters to go Dem

but I doubt that anyone who was leaning Republican switched to Dem or sat out the Missouri election because of him.

Colorado may be different.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. We would need a scientific survey to determine the facts

I believe Limbaugh did with his tirade about Michael J. Fox and Parkinson's Disease.

The Ted Haggard affair had probably had less influence than a lot of people think. The central focus of Ted Haggard's former admirerers was never Haggard; it is Jesus Christ, and they know the difference.

The big hit the GOP took was on the Foley matter. To me, that had less to do with Foley personally than with the House Republican leadership, Speaker Hastert in particular.

[underpants]

10. IMHO Foley was just the last straw

Haggard wasn't a Republican official so I don't think that that had too much of an impact, Foley did.

The funny thing is that the corruption which was unprecedented in its size and reach into the Republican party was hardly covered but yet it stuck with people. It was the #1 or #2 reason people voted as they did according to every single exit poll.

[Johnny Appleseed]

11. Between the two I would say Haggard may have swung the most

votes, as Rush was already a noted hypocrite and bigot after the revelations of drug abuse and his ridiculous and racist McNabb comments. Haggard was an evangelical golden boy who happened to have a penchant for male prostitutes and meth.