EDITORIALS : History lesson
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/225606/
FROM THE bluebirds-are-blue
department: Some voters in Indiana
who usually vote Republican cast a ballot in the white-hot Democratic presidential primary instead. After all, the Republican nomination has been settled for what seems like years now, while the two Democrats (Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, they’re practically one by now ) are still slugging it out in the late rounds. Who wouldn’t want to play in that sandbox ? It’s called crossing over. And none other than Liberal Public Enemy No. 1—Rush Limbaugh—was urging his devilish dittoheads to do the crossing. The talkshow host and conservative provocateur urged Indy Repubs to Vote Hillary ! Operation Chaos was how El Rushbo promoted it. He figured the longer the Democratic primary lasted, the better it would be for Republicans. Plus, heck, you know Rush. He just wanted to cause a ruckus, get some ink, stir the pot. He’s after ratings, remember ?
Sooooo, when Hillary Clinton won Indiana in a photo finish, denying the young prince his crown one more time, some folks cried No Fair. To quote a headline in Friday’s paper: Limbaugh tactic / skewed results, Obama aides say.
Did it ? Who knows ? (Last we checked, voting was anonymous. And we’d trust those exit polls about as much as we trust the entrance ones. ) And if Operation Chaos did affect the result, so what ? In an open primary like Indiana’s—and, yes, Arkansas’ —even Republicans are allowed to vote for anybody they want to for any reason they want to.
Here’s a headline for those Obama aides: It’s a free country !
Besides, that was no crossover in Indiana. We’ve seen crossovers. Crossovers are copy-generating friends of ours. And you, Operation Chaos, are no crossover campaign.
Just ask Miss Hillary. She was there. Or, rather, here, for the Great Crossover Vote of 1990.
As the sports announcers might say, Let’s Go Back in Time. The year: As we’ve already said, 1990. The place: Arkansas. The election: The Republican gubernatorial primary between Sheffield Nelson and Tommy Robinson. A fella named Clinton was on the other side without a worry. As the incumbent Democratic governor, he had no real opposition, naturally. But, chillen, listen here, the Clintonoids were scared silly over the prospect of facing an even slicker, even faster-talking, even more hard-charging, populist candidate than our Boy Bill. Ol’ Tommy had the Buford Pusser vote. He had those Hard-Working, Blue-Collar White Folks, aka Reagan Democrats, in the sticks that Hillary’s claiming now. Soooo, all those Democrats with nothing better to do than rubber-stamp the nomination of William Jefferson Clinton crossed over to vote for Sheffield Nelson. (Psst: They were even encouraged to by a pretty prominent yellow-dog Democrat and FOB who shall go nameless but who’s now dean of the Clinton School of Public Service. His initials are Skip Rutherford. )
Result: Sheffield Nelson won. Bill beat him. The rest is history.
Or not. The other day, we were talking to Sheffield Nelson, and he brought up that ’ 90 election. (Which is a whole other story, maybe a book. ) And he argued that, according to his information, lots of Democrats crossed over to vote for T. R., too. Tommy Robinson was an ex-Democrat, and he had a stranglehold on the good ol’ boys who still voted Democrat ’cause their daddies had but just might make an exception for ol’ Tommy.
The thing is, Obama aides, there’s almost always more than one explanation for how a free, not to say rambunctious, election can turn out. Want a single-cause explanation for an election result ? Try the old Soviet Union (no opposition ) or Saddam Hussein’s ancien régime in Iraq (staying alive ).
In this country, motives tend to be mixed. Sometimes wildly.
When it comes to elections in this country, chaos isn’t the exception, it’s the rule.