Republican cross over voting

[publicatlarge]

How much has this been a factor in the Primaries, and what does it mean for the Democrats in November? We have been posting about this, but this article brings the issue front and center. Article on msnbc Feb 28th:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23394070/

ps: sorry if this has already been posted...

*edit to add this excerpt from article:

“Obamacans,” as the campaign likes to call its Republican supporters, offer a variety of reasons for turning out for Obama, not the least of them a lack of interest in the Republican primary now that Sen. John McCain of Arizona has all but wrapped up his party’s nomination. Others say they genuinely think Obama is the best candidate for change.

But a significant proportion say they are temporarily backing Obama for strategic reasons. They plan to vote Republican in November, but for now, their goal is to try to make sure Clinton cannot win.

Although he said he sincerely supported Obama, Rau acknowledged that “Hillary kind of represents the antithesis of a lot of Republican values.”

[On the Road]

1. I Guess We'll Find Out In November

how many crossovers stay home, stick with their party, or still cross over when it's more meaningful.

Some of the Obama votes are definitely votes against Clinton. However, I suspect a lot of Republicans are disgruntled with their party and really do prefer Obama. There's a lot of antagonism towards McCain in the GOP, and he's often seen as not being a real conservative.

The old saw "why would people vote for a fake Republican when they can vote for a real one" applies to the other party, too.

[Rageneau]

2. Disgruntled GOP voters stay home. Hillary haters stand in line to vote against her.

When a party becomes disillusuined with its leadership, and disgusted with its crop of candidates, that does NOT cause party members to completely change their philosophy and embrace what they used to disdain.

IOW, Republicans who are disappointed in Bush and cool to McCain do NOT change their registration to Democrat and vote for someone as liberal as Obama. It's stupid to think they would.

But what they WOULD do, is pretend to be Democrats long enough to vote against their hated enemy, HRC, while at the same time getting her -- the vetted, prepared, fighter -- out of the way so they can do their usual "redefining" job on Barack.

It seems pretty clear to me that an awful lot of Obama's supporters are actually Greeks hiding inside the Trojan Horse of open primaries.