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Disgruntled Republicans Crossing Over In Democratic Primaries Aren’t Just Obeying Rush Limbaugh
And now it moves to media center stage: the trend of Republicans crossing over to vote in Democratic primaries. But the New York Times reports that many GOPers aren’t doing this because they’re “dittoheads” obeying the wishes of mega-partisan talk show host Rush Limbaugh, but disgruntled Republicans who feel their party has left — or is leaving — them:
INDIANAPOLIS – Until now, Shirley Morgan had always been the kind of voter the Republican Party thought it could count on. She comes from a family of staunch Republicans, has a son in the military and has supported Republican presidential candidates ever since she cast her first ballot, for Richard M. Nixon in 1972.
But this year Mrs. Morgan exemplifies a different breed: the Republican crossing over to vote in the Democratic primary. Not only will she mark her ballot for Senator Barack Obama in the May 6 primary here, but she has also been canvassing for him in the heavily Republican suburbs of Hamilton County, just north of Indianapolis — the first time she has ever actively campaigned for a candidate.
“I used to like John McCain, but he’s aligning himself too closely with what Bush did, and that’s just not what I want for this country,” Mrs. Morgan, who is 56, said when asked to explain her rejection of the presumptive Republican nominee.
This should be a warning flag to John McCain. As I’ve predicted many times on this site, there is a large segment of voters that aren’t going to look at political party at all this year — but want to take a big broom and sweep away the people who are in charge who have brought the United States a war seemingly without end (even if X voter originally supported the war), a decimated economy, a sagging dollar, an epidemic of home foreclosures and plummeting local property values, and an economy peppered by massive corporate cutbacks or failures and employment ills.
Seen from this perspective, the decisions of Democratic rivals Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to ignore Democratic progressives’ demand to boycott Fox News, makes political sense: Republican voters are in play in these primaries and they all can’t be dismissed as participating in Limbaugh’s call to basically sabotage the Democratic primaries.
This suggests that indicates that the potency of the Democratic party’s most progressive wing, is now being offset in some primaries by more conservative and centrist voters who are cross-over Republicans who feel their party has failed them. And they’re shopping around.
The Times confirms this:
Since the start of the primary and caucus season in January, Republican voters have been crossing over in increasing numbers to vote in Democratic contests — supplying up to 10 percent of the vote in states that allow such crossover voting — and they are expected to play a pivotal role in the fiercely contested primary here. What is less clear, however, is the motivation for their behavior: are they genuinely attracted by the two Democratic candidates? Or are they mischief-making spoilers, looking to prolong a divisive Democratic fight or support a candidate Mr. McCain can beat in November?
Local Republican Party leaders in Indiana concede the attraction of the Democratic candidates to some of their party members. And interviews with roughly a dozen Republican voters in central Indiana suggest that they are driven mainly by concerns about the economy, with discontent over Bush administration policies driving their involvement in the Democratic race.
What’s now happening between Obama and Clinton is competition for some of these Republicans — Republicans probably dismissed as “well-they-must-be-Rinos” by lockstep Republican partisans who will adjust their positions or jettison previous principles according to the latest pronouncements from the White House or EIB Radio Network. The Times again:
The drift has given some comfort to Democrats worried about the searing divisions in their party. Surveys of voters leaving the polls and official vote tabulations indicate that both Mr. Obama, of Illinois, and Mrs. Clinton, of New York, have benefited from the Republican crossover vote, though to different degrees and in patterns that vary by state.
Initially, Mr. Obama seemed to be getting the bulk of the vote, attracting moderate Republicans who quickly came to be known as Obamacans and lacing his stump speech with references to them. But more recently, Mrs. Clinton’s share of the crossover vote has grown.
And Limbaugh? In interviews, the Times saw little evidence that GOPers crossing over are doing so to obey talk radio’s ultimate all-encompassing partisan but that it has been “the issues that propelled them.”
So when Obama and Clinton appeared on Fox News recently, they weren’t taking calculated risks.
They were going on a cable network where they could make their pitches to a chunk of voters who’ll help decide some remaining primary races — and the two candidates’ own futures.
Comments to “Disgruntled Republicans Crossing Over In Democratic Primaries Aren’t Just Obeying Rush Limbaugh”
There are also plenty of disgruntled Democrats who may choose to vote for John McCain in November.
I think you underestimate how bad a candidate John McCain is. I doubt that suruban white Republicans really want the expanding government, social engineering, open borders, and let lawyers run everything boilerplate Democratic policy that Senator Obama is running on.
However, since John McCain is clearly unfit to be president and since the Republican Party is clearly in the middle of a collapse from which it will not recover, it makes since that Republicans would cross over. Why support a losing candidate and have no say in policy versus trying to moderate the liberal excesses of the Democratic Party. I just doubt that the suburban former Republican voters will be happy with the resutls of an Obama administration and large Democratic majorities in both houses of the Senate.
Rush Limbaugh couldn't determine the nominee of his own party!!!
“I think you underestimate how bad a candidate John McCain is.”
Related story, no surprise to SD or others who follow things: Yesterday I was on the road at lunchtime, was listening to NPR until I had enough of the smarm. (Only children say “um,” and when they lick their lips and smack it's even worse than their stupid hardening of consonants, and over-emphasizing sibilants and failing to voice voiced consonants, turning Zs into Ss, and that's in addition to irritating effect pronunciation and diction in general. As someone else told me, these people with their irritating speaking deserve a whacking with a Louisville Slugger. Bah, humbug!) I was parked where I was having lunch and turned to AM and the Limbaugh show for a moment — was it tiresome or of interest? — and a caller was telling Limbaugh that McCain was unlikely to have a chance against Clinton, and that, from a conservative viewpoint, “All three candidates stink, Rush, admit it. All three stink!” Limbaugh started laughing and then so did the caller, but Limbaugh did not try to refute the caller's statement after that.
My couple of minutes at a standtill over, I shut off the radio and went inside to lunch, but I remembered that brief exchange (a few seconds) on the radio. The caller was right.
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“I just doubt that the suburban former Republican voters will be happy with the resutls of an Obama administration and large Democratic majorities in both houses of the Senate.”
We get what we pay for, or vote for. (To the extent the politicians aren't lying, of course.) There's a lot of disenchantment with the way things currently are, and the GOP isn't presenting any substantial alternative, and a positive alternative (making it more appealing than merely a “lesser of two evils”), to the Democratic Party.
Many will vote Dem this year to punish the GOP. Besides, why waste time with Dem Lite when you can have the real thing? (Lesson illustrated with Dole in 1996)
Limbaugh isn't still on the air is he?
My God… it truly is a funny world.
[...] Republicans Crossing Over In Democratic Primaries Aren … Adam wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBut the New York Times reports that [...]
superdestroyer: If you are going to post hyperbole about Obama, at least learn how to spell “suburban.” I think these former conservatives are just becoming more enlightened and/or voting on the issues that really matter – such as the economy. They aren't falling for the wedge issues conservatives always fall back on to scare people into voting for them. Eight years of conservative rule has been a disaster.
Of course the last year has been a disaster. However, you should at least state how open border and unlimited immigration along with a massive expansion of the welfare state You should explain how there can be an increase in real wages with a massive expansion of environmental regulations
If Senator Obama was not the choosen one of the left, they would take a few more minutes looking as his economic policies and realize that they are incompatible with each other.
[...] admin wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBut the New York Times reports that many GOPers aren’t doing this because they’re “dittoheads” obeying the wishes of mega-partisan talk show host Rush Limbaugh, but disgruntled Republicans who feel their party has left — or is leaving … [...]