Is there an elephant in the room? Sorry if this is a dupe but I can't

[Thickasabrick]

find a discussion on it. How many republicans crossed over to vote for Hillary yesterday because the republican feeling is that she would be easier to beat?

What about Rush telling everyone to vote for Hillary?

Is there anyway to number crunch down to find out how many republicans voted in the dem primaries?

I'm not for either one right now - I'm just really curious about this.

[nomorewhopper]

1. rush has an absolutely massive audience in texas

how many actually listened to him?

i bet lots, but it's probably impossible to prove (or do anything about). considering how close the race was, i bet it made the difference between hillary's losing and winning. THANKS RUSH

[FrenchieCat]

2. Well, here's one of the "encouragements".....

Ohio Republicans pulling for Clinton to win
If she's Dems' nominee, GOP faithful think she'll unite GOP
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080214/NEWS01/802140346/1056/COL02

[moobu2]

3. Repugly's were telling their minions to vote for BhO

How many crossed over early on just to give the impression he had the DEM base support?

[LaurenG]

5. They didn't tell them to vote Obama, because they are afraid

Obama would kick McCains butt in the GE. I heard with my own ears who they were pushing. x(

[LaurenG]

4. I'm sure there is a way but I don't know what it is

I also strongly suspect it was a lot more than anyone thinks. Someone I really like (didn't know she was a republican either)told me she was a republican who crossed over so that she could insure a republican victory in the fall. :wow:

[comradebillyboy]

6. Based on the exit polls thate were announced on msnbc

Obama got a big majority of the repukes who voted in the Dem primaries.

[flpoljunkie]

7. Yes, evidently R's did vote for Hillary at Limbaugh's urging.

Go and check the exit polls. In Wisconsin, Republicans made up 9 percent of the Democratic primary vote. Obama won them 72-28 over Clinton. Just as tellingly, 14 percent of primary voters said they were "conservative," and Obama won them 59-40, a bigger margin than he won with liberals or moderates. Tactical voters who said Obama stood a better chance of winning in November? They went for him 87-13.

Now, look at Ohio. Once again 9 percent of voters were Republicans, but Obama and Clinton split them evenly, 49-49. Once again, 14 percent of voters were "conservatives," and Obama and Clinton split them 48-48. (Obama did better with them than he did with liberals and moderates.) Those tactical voters who thought Obama could win gave him a 80-18 victory, a margin twelve points smaller than the margin in Wisconsin.

It's a similar story in Texas, where Limbaugh has the most listeners of any of these states. Obama won the Republican vote 52-47, but conservatives (22 percent of all voters, up from 15 percent in the Kerry-Edwards primary) went against Obama. For the first time since Super Tuesday, they were Clinton's best ideological group: She won them 53-43. And Clinton won 13 percent of the people who said Obama was the most electable candidate.

Ohio didn't wind up being very close, but Clinton won the Texas primary by about 98,000 votes out of 2.8 million cast. If the exits are right, about 252,000 of those voters were Republicans, and about 618,000 were conservatives. Clinton truly might have won the Texas primary on the backs of Rush Limbaugh listeners.

http://reason.com/blog/show/125327.html

[Thickasabrick]

8. Thank you so much - I'm surprised this isn't a big story somewhere

[nomorewhopper]

9. i did a search and found it here

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/03/rush-limbaugh-urges-texas_n_89674.html

there were a few other stories on the web, but it looks like the msm hasn't picked up on the story yet

[rinsd]

10. Relying on Reason who relies on The Corner.

Sorry if I don't take rw analysis of thier impact on our race very seriously.

[Thickasabrick]

11. Thanks everyone! I wish only Democrats were allowed to vote

in Democratic primaries. It would be a great way to insure that the choice is who democrats want. This "muddying" of the waters by people like Rush really bothers me.

[FedoraLV]

12. Thom Hartmann

mentioned on his show today that he was a guest on Faux this morning. They asked for viewers to respond if they'd followed Rush's advice: in 14 minutes 1,200 had emailed in saying yes, they'd voted for Clinton on Rush's word.

(That's within 15 minutes, of the people who happened to watching, who wanted to reply, and who had email handy: it's a sample, not the total.)

-FedoraLV

[Thickasabrick]

15. That's pretty scary in that it only reflects just those watching. Rush

has more influence than I thought.

[Yossariant]

13. LOL! Obama won Republicans in Texas. Clinton won liberal, moderate and conservative DEMOCRATS.

Yes, there's an elephant in the room and the Obamatons are too blinded by their epiphany to notice it.

[Thickasabrick]

14. Do you have a link? This really wasn't intended to be about one

side or the other - just a discussion on what impact Rush and the republicans are having on our primaries. I think it's more important than people realize.

[cooolandrew]

16. What they aren't bargaining on she would be their leader, put that out there to repub friends.