Suggestion to Rush Limbaugh: enough Operation Chaos
5/1/2008 - 8:13pm
If Rush Limbaugh were to ask my opinion about his "Operation Chaos" in which he encouraged Republican voters to vote for Hillary Clinton in their states' Democratic primaries (including changing their party registration if necessary), here's what I'd say.
It was certainly clever, and it's certainly been effective. Now it's time to know when to stop.
Hillary Clinton's continuation this far in the race has been great for those of us who (even if not big fans of John McCain) shudder at the idea of either President Hillary or President Barack.
The two Democrats are raising each other's "negatives" with their attacks and, just as importantly, are spending huge amounts of money while John McCain spends close to zero and stays above the fray.
Maintaining a hint of possibility for Hillary to be nominated has been more than enough to keep her fighting as hard as she can, using every friend, trick, and debt she can, even surviving the incredible missteps of her husband.
The key is maintaining enough of that hint of possibility without actually raising her chances substantially. If Hillary were to do exceptionally well in the remaining primaries, she still won't catch Obama in pledged delegates, but she will have a very strong argument to make that she should be the party's nominee because Obama is unelectable.
Indeed, despite Obama's apparent inevitability after Iowa, I believe (and polls suggest) that if the election were held today, he would have a more difficult time against McCain than Clinton would.
At this point, it's likely that Clinton will stay in until the convention. Sure, there's a chance she'd get out if she lost Indiana, but I don't think the Clinton ego, being this close to the brass ring, will drop out.
Don't forget, if Obama wins the presidency, Hillary almost certainly can't challenge him in 2012 as an incumbent. So she'd have to wait until 2016, at which time she'd be 69 years old...certainly old enough that her age would be a liability in an election. So, Hillary's best chance is either to get the nomination now or to hope that John McCain wins so she can try again in four years, during which time she'll do everything she can to put herself in an "I told you so" position for the next campaign.
Even if she's fairly certain she won't get the nomination, she probably has to stay in the race just to weaken Obama. The only team the Clintons play for is the Clinton team.
Sure, if Obama doesn't get the nomination, many blacks won't vote, especially if he's not on the ticket as VP. Conventional wisdom, and there certainly is truth to it, is that large numbers of blacks staying home could cost the Democrats one or more must-win states, like Ohio or Florida or possibly even Michigan (that's a longshot for a Republican, but not impossible.)
But more women vote than blacks, and if Hillary stormed back to get the nomination, no matter how unseemly the process might appear to the public, she would get an immense boost, as her husband did, as "The Second Comeback Kid". Her momentum would help her fund-raising immensely and would inspire more women to make the effort to get to the polls...maybe even enough to offset the blacks who would stay home.
So, Rush, Pat yourself on the back (as if you don't already do that often enough) and now let the votes fall where they may, hopefully not strong enough for Hillary that she actually does get the nomination through convincing super-delegates of her electability.
Operation Chaos has gone on long enough and it's accomplished just what you set out to. Time to cut it off so that we don't actually give Hillary a serious chance of getting the nomination. I'd much rather face a weakened Obama, peppered with images of a lapel without an American flag, not putting his hand over his heart during the National Anthem, and of course Jeremiah Wright, than face the sequel of the Comeback Kid. The current situation in the Democratic Party could hardly be better for Republicans. As Napoleon suggested (or at least it's attributed to him), "never interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake." At this point, more of Operation Chaos would simply be an interruption.
Cross-posted at Rossputin.com
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Ross...you still don't get it...
Ross,
You and the rest of the media still don't get it. The reason for Operation Chaos was substantially more than just propping up Hillary's campaign. Operation Chaos was designed to bring CHAOS to the Democratic Party--to get them to openly begin to devour one another, to expose their liberal, socialist agenda. Operation Chaos will continue through the Denver Convention.
Ross, can you imagine the chaos and infighting that will take place in Denver? It's a dream come true! Operation Chaos--Bring it on!!
Think first before you cast your ballot
I’ve been a Republican for most of my life - I’m a Christian, with conservative values - both on social and fiscal issues. But in the past two years, I’ve said, “I’m a political agnostic - there are two parties, but I don’t believe in either of them.” And I’m also like most of Rush’s listeners - I’ve read enough books by people who’ve been close to the Clintons to know that they are dangerous. And so, when I heard that Hillary was beaten in Iowa by Barack Obama, I perked up. And then, I started watching the primaries on Tuesday just for the thrill of seeing her get her butt kicked.
But right now, Hillary’s ego and ambition have guaranteed that this will go to the election. She doesn’t need Rush for that. But you just have to look at the numbers from the primaries (you can see them in several places - Fox has them on their website state by state) and you can see that the number of voters in all of these states shows that the Republicans were outnumbered by 3 to 1 and sometimes more in most of the states with primaries. So, if you’re going to vote strategically - you need to be doing everything in your power to make sure Hillary is not standing on the steps in January with Chelsea and Bill at her side being sworn in as President. (And while Rush is looking over his invite to the Inaugural ball, all of his followers are going to be there saying, “I helped do THIS to our country!”) What strikes me as odd is that Rush is so quick to brush off the questions about “what if she wins?” I think he’s more motivated by his personal beef with McCain than anything.
What bothers me the most about what I’m seeing the re-emergence of the deflection of attention and the incredible spin machine that the Clintons have. I first noticed when after Super Tuesday, the top story was “Harold Ickes said”, or “Wolfson of the Clinton campaign said…” Sidney Blumenthal has been sending emails that are just outright lies about Obama to conservative magazine editors. The email that went viral with saying things like “the Muslim terrorists want to gain a foothold in our government…” came from the Clinton camp and was circulated to who knows how many millions (I’ve gotten it twice). It makes me wonder if that’s how they’re going to operate when she’s in office? It’s working pretty effectively for her so far.
Rush is very careful about telling his faithful listeners, “hey - this isn’t the general election, I’m just trying to create chaos…” But while Rush has no children in the armed services, while Rush is economically fairly well protected from the economic setbacks the rest of us are facing, and Rush will probably be able to make a lot of money with the Clinton saga - Part II (and may even get an invite to the Inaugural Ball), life is not going to be that easy for the rest of us if Bill and Hillary are back in the White House.
Despite Rush’s simplistic analysis, Hillary and Bill Clinton are not the same as Barack Obama. The difference that scares me is the first, the back-room deals and profit-motive of the Clintons and second their attitude towards the military and foreign relations. By sticking to the high road, Barack Obama has not brought up these glaring issues, but this is my perspective:
1. Bill has been making a lot of money from deals with other countries and large multi-national companies in the past 8 years - a lot more than the $109 million reported, because some of these donations are going into the Clinton Family Foundation or the Clinton Global Initiative which has raised $500 million, or the Clinton Presidential Library which has raised over $500 million. Come on people, what is Bill doing that is worth a billion dollars?!
When the Clintons left the White House, remember the 140 pardons that were issued on the last day. Pardons to Marc Rich who contributed to Hillary’s first election campaign. Remember the pardons for drug dealers that were arranged by Hugh and Tony Rodham - brothers of Hillary? Well, those were messy transactions. But donations to a “Global Initiative” or a Presidential Library are sanitized. And the question that has never been raised by the “journalists” covering this campaign is “What will Bill do with his Global Initiative?”
Hillary and Bill are a close political partnership. And their roles as US Senator and Ex-President/private businessman/public do-gooder give them a great deal of flexibility and power to achieve their agenda. Remember the Dubai ports deal? Where the Kingdom of Dubai asked to be responsible for running the US ports? A deal that almost got past us until the media caught wind of it. Well, Senator Hillary joined the chorus of “patriotic opposition” and then a little article came out about how ex-President/private businessman Bill had been working for Dubai to arrange this deal. Look at the Columbia free-trade agreement. Hillary seemed to convince Ohio voters that she really was against NAFTA (contrary to the recollection of the union leaders who were in charge at that time and Youtube videos of Hillary speaking for NAFTA). Yet, Bill received $800,000 promoting this and had started working for this agreement while he was President.
Unfortunately, the media evidently is not going to bring those issues up - certainly not CNN, and the Murdoch-owned Fox and other media are solidly in Hillary’s camp, though they’re giving token support to John McCain.
Right now the Clintons seem to own the media. Notice how many times the political news starts out with “Wolfson said,” “Ickes said”. You don’t hear David Plouffe’s name or Axelrod’s name like that. Then there’s Sidney Blumenthal sending out total lies to the right wing media, and Lanny and James Carville. Say what you want, but the Obama people do keep trying to take the high road (“Respect. Empower. Include”). And right now, the Fox machine has turned all of their attention on Obama. Do you really think they’re going to take Hillary on? She wears those attacks like a badge of honor.
And frankly, though voters seem to be subjected to a force-feeding of 6 weeks of Rev. Wright, I think they’re over Monica and a blue dress and are going to vote based on the war and the economy.
2. Just a reminder about the Clintons and the military. 250,000 military positions were cut with their "Reinvent Government" plan. And if you're wondering about the troop shortages and 3rd and 4th deployments of our national guard neighbors - thank the Clintons. And remember the disrespect they showed the military in the White House and else where.
I do have two complimentary things to say about Hillary. She’s definitely had a good stylist and has her hair down right, she smiles a lot - and as a veteran of 3 Presidential campaigns, 3 governor campaigns, 2 Senate campaigns, she’s good on the stump. And as for a debate or in the advertising campaigns, Republicans should be shaking in their boots because she’s going to make a blithering idiot out of John McCain. There will no civility there. We all can see that Obama really is trying to live by the principles of running a civil campaign and a different type of politics.
If Rush’s troops want any chance in November of seeing McCain on those steps, they should be voting Obama on Tuesday.
Operation Chaos
I agree with you that Operation Chaos should be ended, but for different reasons and unfortunately it may be too late already. I agree that Operation Chaos gave Hillary the confidence to continue to the end of the nomination, but this is where I differ. There is no way that she will get the nomination and when she doesn't, she will claim that the nomination was stolen from her, partly because of all the votes from Operation Chaos. She will then form her own party, something like "The Christian Family Party" and run on a third ticket. This sounds good at first, but wait, McCain will then have to fight both Obama and Hillary. This will be a mess, as McCain will be left out of the debate thats been going on for months and come Nov, hardly anyone will remember his name. The Republican hard core will vote for McCain, the Hillary supporters will vote for her and the Independants, Republican believers, and hardcore democrates will vote for Obama. So, Operation Chaos fails. Lies, hate and misdeeds always lose, no matter how noble the cause.