Obama campaign recognizes "Operation Chaos"
Even as Barack Obama's campaign celebrated Tuesday's primary results, aides charged yesterday that they would have had an even stronger showing were it not for meddling by an unlikely booster of Hillary Rodham Clinton: the popular conservative radio host and longtime Clinton family nemesis Rush Limbaugh.Limbaugh doesn't want either candidate. What he wanted was for the campaign to go on so that hey would be beating each other up. In that he was very successful. I think as a result of the extended campaign Obama has come down to earth and is a much weaker candidate.The impact of Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" emerged as an intriguing point of debate, particularly in Indiana, where registered voters could participate in either party's primary, and where Clinton won by a mere 14,000 votes. As he had before several recent primaries, Limbaugh encouraged listeners to vote for Clinton to "bloody up Obama politically" and prolong the Democratic fight.
Limbaugh crowed about the success of his ploy all day Tuesday, featuring on-air testimonials from voters in Indiana and North Carolina who recounted their illicit pleasure in casting a vote for Clinton. "Some of the people show up and they ask for a Democrat ballot, and the poll worker says, 'Why, what are you going to do?' He says, 'Operation Chaos,' and they just laugh," Limbaugh said Tuesday.
But Limbaugh called off the operation yesterday, saying he wants Obama to be the party's pick, because "I now believe he would be the weakest of the Democrat nominees."
He added: "He can get effete snobs, he can get wealthy academics, he can get the young, and he can get the black vote, but Democrats do not win with that."
The Obama campaign and many of its supporters condemned Limbaugh's intervention tactic yesterday, calling it a major factor in Clinton's narrow Hoosier State win.
"Rush Limbaugh was tampering with the primary, and the GOP has clearly declared that it wants Hillary Clinton as the candidate," Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), an Obama supporter, told reporters on a conference call. On the same call, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Limbaugh "had a clear factor in the outcome."
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Sen. Kerry never really understood strategy despite his vast three months of experience in Vietnam. Jim Geraghty also comments on Kerry's lack of vision.
Operation Chaos is just a cover for Limbaugh and other right-wingers, so they don't have to explain the huge defections from the Republican Party.
ReplyDeleteIf you KNOW that millions of Americans have had it with the Republican agenda (or lack thereof), and that they will be defecting in record numbers, then all you can do to save face is claim "we told them to do it."
Ask youself -- what kind of hell would Limbaugh be in if the defections were happening but he did NOT have operation chaos to hang his hat on.
The OC is a sham. November will prove that.
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