Did Republicans Hijack the Democratic Primary?
The answer is, yes, they did. Rush Limbaugh did the hijacking. He told Republicans to vote for Clinton in the Democratic primary. Her margin in Texas was 98,000 votes. When all the numbers get crunched, you'll find that many Clinton voters have a Republican primary voting history.
Look at how low the Republican primary vote was in some races. In Ellen Cohen's district, the two Republicans polled just 2,715 early votes in 53 precincts. Where were all the voters? In the Democratic primary, voting for Clinton.
Look at how low the Republican primary vote was in some races. In Ellen Cohen's district, the two Republicans polled just 2,715 early votes in 53 precincts. Where were all the voters? In the Democratic primary, voting for Clinton.
I gotta agree with Paul on this. I have spoken to more than one staunch Republican in Texas who voted for Clinton based on Limbaugh's persuasion. Maybe I'm crazy, but I didn't know people still listened to talk radio, much less Rush. If I were Obama, I would bring this up to the DNC when he and Clinton come to blows for the super delegates after the primaries. Looks like they are both in it for the long haul.
With Clinton saying on the Today Show, she'd be glad to have Obama as her running mate, she reminds me of Sanjaya from American Idol. Poor thing thinks she won and people in Texas love her. Is it good or bad to see people 'abuse' the system? Are they really doing their candidate a favor by voting for who they think is the worst candidate to put up against their guy? This rarely works in the Gauntlet III, where the small, skinny chick on the rookie squad has torn through 4 'stronger candidates.'
With Clinton saying on the Today Show, she'd be glad to have Obama as her running mate, she reminds me of Sanjaya from American Idol. Poor thing thinks she won and people in Texas love her. Is it good or bad to see people 'abuse' the system? Are they really doing their candidate a favor by voting for who they think is the worst candidate to put up against their guy? This rarely works in the Gauntlet III, where the small, skinny chick on the rookie squad has torn through 4 'stronger candidates.'
5 comments:
I have to agree with you here. Even though I have yet to see any hard evidence on this matter, my gut is telling me that the republican voters out there are up to something, especially the ones in Texas who rarely get the opportunity to sway the outcome of the primaries due to their late vote. I have relatives who live in Texas and have told me that they, as well as their like-minded republican friends, cast their votes for Clinton in order to put a stop to Obama. I don't know how significant this 'crossover' vote is but I definitely don't like its implications. Can anyone provide some hard evidence proving or disproving this? I would love to see it.
Here is some hard evidence to discredit the above assertation that the Republicans hijacked the Democratic primary.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/epolls/#TXDEM
(be sure and copy-paste this into your browser)
Go to the 4th tab on this exit polling data. It shows that by party identification, only 9% of Republicans voted in the Texas primary, hardly a figure that screams sabotage. Further, of that 9%, 53% voted for Obama and only 46% for Clinton. That means Obama actually gained from the Republican vote! It would have been a worse loss for Obama had these Republicans not voted.
I believe this should settle this issue.
This exit poll is pretty interesting. Check out the "More Likely to Win in November" question. If I'm reading this correctly, 52% of voters thought Obama was more than likely to win in November, however, only 80% of those voters actually voted for him. 40% of voters thought Clinton was more likely to win in November and of those voters 93% voted for her. What's the point of voting in the democratic primary for the person you think is less likely to win the general election? Unless you're a republican...
Possibly, so? That doesn't change the fact that if there were Republicans trying to abuse the system, more of the voted for Obama. It could also have to do with some Obama voters for some reason thinking Clinton will somehow pull out the nomination b/c of superdelgates, or Clinton voters thinking Obama's tidal wave of momentum was too much for Clinton to overcome.
It would be naive to think that this didn't occur, the only question is how often did it occur and now that the idea is on the table how much will it resonate with the remaining states, the states that now hold the fate of the democratic party. Are there desperate republicans that will use this tactic, well, since Rush still has a show on the national airwaves my vote is yes. Will it make a difference, who knows, but now Obama supporters will have an excuse if he doesn't win the nomination.
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