 Limbaugh's 'Operation Chaos' Working By DONALD J. MYERS A Mind of My Own Published: Apr 25, 2008 Prior to the Texas and Ohio primary elections, Rush Limbaugh implemented his “Operation Chaos.” The purpose of this was to have Republicans vote in Democratic primaries for Sen. Hillary Clinton in order to keep her in the race and continue the fight between her and Sen. Barack Obama.
Limbaugh opined that neither the Republican Party nor Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate, would aggressively challenge either Clinton or Obama, but in order to win the nomination both Clinton and Obama would wage unlimited warfare. Up to this point, that has been correct.
Clinton won both Ohio and Texas and the fight continued between her and Obama. The latest results in Pennsylvania also had Clinton winning by almost 10 percent. With that victory, Clinton has now won six of eight large states, but still trails in the popular and delegate counts.
She claims that Obama will not be able to win the general election since he has been unable to win major Democratic states. Unlike the Republicans, the Democrats have “super delegates” who are not required to follow the popular votes. As the race in the Democratic Party moves towards the convention, it appears that the super delegates will be the ones who select the Democratic candidate. These super delegates are the power brokers in the party — governors, senators, congressmen and other influential people. Neither Clinton nor Obama will have enough delegates to be nominated as the Democratic candidate prior to the convention.
Operation Chaos has definitely had an effect in that Obama has had to defend his association with a pastor who has preached against the country, a wife who has said that she had not been proud of this country until this year and a convicted terrorist who is unrepentant who remains a friend of the senator. In each case, the senator has not provided adequate responses to put the issues to rest.
Clinton continues to show that she has difficulty telling the truth in areas that are easy to verify or do not account too much. Her story about “dodging sniper fire” in Bosnia was shown to be a fabrication of the event.
The bottom line is that each Democratic candidate continues to raise issues about the character and competence of the other and permit the public to see the leadership failings of each.
The Democratic leadership is anxious to see an end to this particular primary race and wants Clinton to quit for the good of the party. After watching her and her husband for two decades, they should realize that power is not something that either one relinquishes without a struggle. Clinton will go to the very end all the way to the convention and then some.
As far as she is concerned, she should have been anointed as president and all of this is just so unfair and that she should not be challenged for what is rightfully hers.
There are those who will argue that Republicans are playing dirty politics by being involved in the Democratic primaries. I did not hear any concern when Democrats and independents voted in early open Republican primaries and nominated McCain as the Republican candidate. He never did receive the majority of Republican votes.
Donald J. Myers, a retired colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, is a regular columnist for Hernando Today. He lives in Spring Hill.
| |
