The Radio Equalizer: Brian Maloney

23 April 2008

Limbaugh's Operation Chaos Plays Role In Pennsylvania Election Results

IT WORKED!

Operation Chaos Affects PA Vote







After weeks of on-air mischief by Rush Limbaugh, it appears his listeners really did come through for Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, clearly boosting her margin over Barack Obama. The resulting 10-point win over the Illinois senator has reshaped the Democrat primary, with Hillary now looking stronger than she has in ages.

According to news reports, a large number of newly registered Democrats affected the outcome, though networks seem to disagree on whether that helped Obama or Clinton.

Either way, there's no denying the role of Rush's happily subversive Operation Chaos. From WTAE in Pittsburgh:


There are 5,400 more registered Democrats in Westmoreland County this election day than there were in the November general election.

Both campaigns for Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have spent a lot of time and money seeking out Democrats and so far, the turnout has been huge.

"I voted for Obama," said Democratic voter Angela Rullo. "I think he's going to make a difference. I hope."

"I chose Hillary. I think she has more experience, more access to government," said voter Sara Hayden.

But not everybody registered so their favorite Democrat would win. By some estimates, hundreds of Republicans switched parties to keep the feud going between Clinton and Obama.

Republican Dave Rotigel is one of them. While voting on Tuesday, Rotigel wore a shirt that read, "Operation Chaos," which was inspired by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

"Now that Hillary is running, I decided to register Democrat so I could vote for the woman," said Rotigel, who said he does not like Clinton. "We need to keep this Democrat family feud going as long as we can. Hopefully, it will go to the convention floor and destroy the Democratic Party for five decades."


Further evidence of Rush's substantial role in yesterday's vote comes from this McClatchy wire service report:


One out of 10 voters said they'd changed their party registrations so they could vote in the primary, according to exit polls. They broke for Obama by a margin of nearly 2-1.

Yet late-deciding voters, including those who'd long been registered Democrats, broke heavily for Clinton.

One possible explanation was the flood of controversial news about Obama in recent weeks, as well as his defensive performance in a debate last week.

Another possible ingredient in the mix was mischief: Popular conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh for weeks urged his loyal listeners to register as Democrats to vote for Clinton and prolong an increasingly harsh battle that might benefit the Republicans.

The Pennsylvania vote could well do that, even if it remains a daunting challenge for Clinton to win the nomination.


And additional evidence of Rush's impact can be found here, here and here.


It isn't just El Rushbo who will benefit from Hillary's decisive victory, however: radio and cable talkers across the country now have a resurgent Clinton and less- stable Obama to provide entertaining fodder for many more weeks to come.

A victory by Obama in Pennsylvania would have sealed the deal for Barack and taken the presidential election off of talk radio's front- burner for the time being. And even if Hillary had won by a mere slim margin, her campaign would have ceased to exist.

As a result, there are thousands of presenters and pundits who should be thanking talk's titan for cooking up Operation Chaos, as the Pennsylvania outcome had Limbaugh's fingerprints all over it.


FOR New England regional talk radio updates, see our other site.


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Clinton image: AP

18 Comments:

  • appalling.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 23 April, 2008 09:06  

  • Rush's Operation Chaos was a brilliant concept and he has played it perfectly. It is amazing how many main stream media people mention Operation Chaos on a daily basis.

    Of course, Obama has helped immensely. Senator Obama is a man of no accomplishments, other than getting elected to the United States Senate, and before that, to the Illinois State Senate. He’s done nothing, he has a wafer-thin legislative record, he wrote an autobiography about nothing.

    So when you have such a man running for president, all you can tell about him are who he has chosen to spend his life with. He’s chosen to work along side a fellow board member who was a terrorist who led the Weather Underground and is sorry they did not do more bombing, and the neo-segregationist, racist, ranter like Jeremiah Wright and his anti-America wife, Michelle.

    And then he denigrates all the small town folk in the Midwest by saying they are xenophobes who cling to their religion and guns because they are bitter.

    If Hillary had dropped out earlier, this disastrous information on Obama would never have been revealed. Operation Chaos has succeeded.

    By Blogger The Benson Report, at 23 April, 2008 09:49  

  • Sure right..... In Pa, you can not vote in the Dem primary if your an independent. So according to Brian, the huge increase of democratic voters, who were formally independent all registered Democrat because of Limbaugh?? The new democratic registered voters are mainly former independents, not Republicans. So all of these independents (who lean 60% to 40% to the left) are Limbaugh listeners, all those independent voters who are more progressive thasn the Democratic party ( study every last poll, independents lean heavilly left) all of a sudden listen to Rush and turned into McCain supporters??? Horse sh*t. and no Benson, nobody in the media takes limbagh seriously, did Fox mention it once.

    I can see if Pa was an open primary, I could see a few ditto-sheep (like Benson) obeying their master and voting in the Dem primary, but masses of independents turned Democrat because of Rush? Keep dreaming.

    Whoever the Dem candidate is will win Pa. in a LANDSLIDE

    Brian are you implying that Republicans and conservtives are sheep (which I have said all along) and will do anything Rush says?

    Bottom line ditto has 14 million listeners nationwide, that is all, less than 1 million per market, ditto-man played no IMPACT in Pa. They like Hillary, and democratic turnout was HUGE. This has to do with Bush failing America, not Limbaugh. I nessance less than a fraction of 1 percent of the entire population listens to ditto-man. You can see by the low amounnt of readership on this blog and all ditto-related blogs, that basically nobody listens to Limbaugh any longer. 14 million and on in every market? That is SAD. Ditto is everywhere in America on the radio, everywhere.... 14 million listeners, that is FAILURE.

    There are hosts with less than 30 affiliates who have over 2 million listeners.

    By Blogger Minister of Propaganda, at 23 April, 2008 11:07  

  • It appears that Operation Chaos is a brilliant strategy on Rush's part but what is that strategy? Will it utimately be good for the Republican Party in November?
    Operation Chaos--Practice Your Strategic Thinking

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 23 April, 2008 11:37  

  • Mopman said "14 million listeners, that is FAILURE."

    Let's see your source for the 14 million number.

    And he is mentioned almost every day on liberal favorite stations like CNN, MSNBC, and the major media. If he was a failure, he would not constantly be referenced.

    By Blogger The Benson Report, at 23 April, 2008 12:20  

  • 27% of the PA GOP voters voted for someone OTHER than McCain. Not a way to show great support for your geriatric candidate.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 23 April, 2008 12:36  

  • 14 million is the figure from Talkres magazine, and MSNBC and CNN are not liberal, you have to be high on Oxycotin to think ANY NETWORK is liberal. GET A GRIP. CNN is campaigning for McCain, MSNBC is campaigning for McCain, noone is holding McCain under the same microscope as the Democrats. If you don't see this, Benson, your simply not watchging TV and trusting Limbaugh over reality. The media is PRO-BIG BUSINESS, big business owns it, the GOP caters to big business, so the media caters to the GOP. Limbaigh for 25 years has spit in your face Benson, lied to your face and crapped in your ears.
    and he laughs to the bank.

    Benson, Limbaiugh is not keeping Hillary in the race, Hillary is keeping Hillary in the race. Look what this idiot posted:

    Benson:
    If Hillary had dropped out earlier, this disastrous information on Obama would never have been revealed. Operation Chaos has succeeded.

    Makes no sense, Clinton is in the race because of Limbaugh's operation chaos? HUH? Benson and Brian are showing their homoerotic loyalty to Rush, it is sick

    By Blogger Minister of Propaganda, at 23 April, 2008 13:02  

  • to anonymous:

    McCain is the leading Republican candidate
    27% of the PA GOP voters voted for someone else

    Obama is the leading Democrat candidate
    55% of the PA DNC voters voted for someone else

    McCain won
    Obama lost

    So anonymous - your point was???

    By Blogger The Benson Report, at 23 April, 2008 17:26  

  • Mopman - Appreciate the tip on Talkers Magazine. Looks like there are quite a few other conservative talk show hosts doing well also. Limbaugh is still #1 according to them.

    After reading your other comments, including the gem that CNN and MSNBC are not liberal, I have to conclude that you are in serious need of some psychiatric nursing care. To actually believe that the mass media is promoting the Republicans is a stretch that no sane person would ever make.

    I understand why you could not comprehend the subtleties of Operation Chaos. This sort of high-end strategy and tactics is a bit too complicated for the average New York City mind to grasp.

    By Blogger The Benson Report, at 23 April, 2008 18:49  

  • Hold on, one second.... I admit the statistical spreads do hold for the dispersion of Limbaugh's audience per the anti-Lim's comments. However, Rush has 20 million listerners, and studies show his audience is the most educated audience of all media in the US population. At the same time, Benson has a point about media synergistic effect. I've seen and heard all of the outlets talking about Limbaugh's Chaos. By the way per US News, 75% of the media consider themselves liberal, and 80% voted for Clinton twice!!! How's that a conservative bias outside of conjecture? Also, Obama didn't field a single tough question until this month. If you watch the GOP debates, that's standard to get questions like BO got just this month. Even SNL pointed this out who are another version of the Hollywood libs.

    I admit I don't like McCain, but I sure as heck don't like BO. Hillary ain't looking bad to me anymore, and I'm probably the most conservative person posting messages here. I guess when someone serves you manure enough times you get used to the smell. None of these candidates have no true experience. None of them were true leaders/administrators/managers. You guys realize this is the executive branch of government right? The same branch executes/manages/administrates policy. It's not the one that conjectures about legal policy or purse strings. McCain comes the closest, but with this crop that's not saying much. When's the last time we had someone who was only a senator for president? JFK... 40 years ago. There's a reason... It's they don't have the right experience, and it's probably why these are so liberal because they haven't experienced reality yet. The outside world would rather kill you than love you for being tolerant. Economies boom when you cut taxes and reduce tariffs.

    By the way, 20 million isn't a failure; it's a succesfull business model unlike Air America.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 24 April, 2008 01:22  

  • Benson:
    If Hillary had dropped out earlier, this disastrous information on Obama would never have been revealed. Operation Chaos has succeeded.

    Minister of Propaganda
    Makes no sense, Clinton is in the race because of Limbaugh's operation chaos? HUH? Benson and Brian are showing their homoerotic loyalty to Rush, it is sick

    WOW - dear lil' Minister of Drek - your failed education at Ned 'n Lemuals Akadome O Learnin’ and Tonsorial Parlor is being demonstrated by you so eloquently today - we are terribly sorry to see your demonstrated failings at being able to comprehend the basic Queens English and the use of basic logic to understand what’s in front of you.

    So sorry there lil Snookums that you've failed so miserably at the basics of life - and yes, I'll have a large order of fries with that ! Next time, try UNDERSTANDING what is written before demonstrating superior ignominy and failings.

    "Certo scio, occisam saepe sapere plus multo suem" - Plautus

    BTW - might we suggest reading a bit of Mr. Bozell to restart your education and re-entry to reality -

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 24 April, 2008 06:17  

  • Benson
    The entire media is going out of their way to not hold McCain accountable for anything. The media ws not ultra-friendly towards him initially( maybe early last year) but from September of 2007 and on, the media has paved an easy path for McCain.
    First. McCain used to be a vocal opposition to out of control Bush tax cuts. McCain stood against the Republican and Bush goal of eliminating the Estate Tax, as of today he is in favor of eliminating the estate tax. Broadcast journalism is NOT pointing this out. Most Americans know Obama has a scary preacher and Faarakan likes Obama, but very few people understand McCain stands for nothing. McCain has flipped on the estate tax, the Bush tax cuts, and practically evey issue. McCain is breaking campaign finance laws , RIGHT NOW, his campaign is being run illegally, yet the media WILL not explain it to the people. McCain's policies are now (after flip floping) exactly like Bush a president with a 26% approval rating, and the media has done eveerything they possibly could to seperate the 2 (Bush and McCain) and get the idea out there that McCain is a "Maverick' when he is not, he is identical to Bush. McCain claims "he will start a war on proverty", nobody in the media ASKS HIM HOW he will do this.

    I'm not in need of psychiatric help. I proved it to you, I can go on and continue to prove it to you. The media paved the way for the Maverick, has not questioned the man on anything, will not have the writer of the "Real John Mccain" on ANY NETWORK. The book makes a lot of claims, yet the book is ignored. Every hack blogger who comes out and has an Obama or Clinton smear gets their time on T.V, a authoor of a credibly researched book, gets no air time....
    The media by donating 24/7 to Hillary and Obama smear and ignoring McCain and everything related to him are DIRECTLY campaigning for him. I will continue to call every network , every day and ask them why, and tell them how aware I'm of this pattern. I share this with everyone I know. We all call up, every single day and ask them WHY??
    The media is being held accountable by people like me. I clearly see, the Republican love fest on broadcast television every single day.

    See Benson, I'm dedicated to breaking your myth. Your "liberal media" mantra is a Goebells-like myth, repeated long enough to make sheep believe it. You know the media is not "liberal", you are playing a GAME, to trick people.

    If your not playing a game, you bought the myth of "liberal media". IT is a MYTH, it is a LIE, it is a Goebells-like propaganda line. Your freaks on the radio repeat it over and over, you continue to keep the myth alive. I fight the myth and slowly the "lib media" myth is being broken.


    there is nothing high end about Rush. Even he people who promote and syndicate Rush, call what they do, selling meat to the retards.
    Remember I was in the business of radio when I was a lot younger. New Yorkers understand what Rush is, a propaganda mouth-piece spreading myths. His biggest myth is "lib media", he says this to get retards to think his show is the "truth" unvarnished from "libs". Nice gimmick, it is also a LIE.

    and trust me Im not voting for any of the 3. Very little difference between the 3, of course the big business friendly media will not explain this.

    By Blogger Minister of Propaganda, at 24 April, 2008 10:52  

  • Mopman said: I will continue to call every network , every day and ask them why, and tell them how aware I'm of this pattern. I share this with everyone I know. We all call up, every single day and ask them WHY??

    Every day? Every network? really? You must be on a first-name basis with the receptionists. How about Saturdays and Sundays? How about the holidays? Do you call each shift as well? When you go on vacation do you call them with your cell phone?

    I had no idea that Rush Limbaugh and Operation Chaos were that powerful.

    Sorry, I have to apologize. I was wrong when I suggested you needed psychiatric nursing care. I now realize that sort of minimal assistance will not help.

    You need a padded cell.

    By Blogger The Benson Report, at 24 April, 2008 15:03  

  • MiniProp said:

    MSNBC and CNN are not liberal

    1. 2/3 of MSNBC's weeknight 8-11 Eastern prime time line-up is Keith Olbermann.

    2. The MSNBC weeknight 6 pm program "The Race for the White House" is now being simulcast on Air America.

    I think all reasonable people chalk up MSNBC as leaning toward the left, making them a liberal network.

    By Blogger Chromium, at 24 April, 2008 16:06  

  • Floyd, I will wipe the smirk right off your face in a heartbeat. So arrogant, but so wrong....

    Hillary is hurting the Democratic primary, not Limbaugh. Benson said
    "if Hillary had dropped out earlier, this disastrous information on Obama would never have been revealed. Operation Chaos has succeeded."

    As I said that makes no sense, he is half rightregarding the information on Obama comming out because of Hillary staying in the race, but Hillary is not staying in the race because of operation Chaos and operation Chaos is not making thousands of new Democrats (formerly independents) vote for Hillary to hurt the Democratic party.....Polls in PA. reflected Hillary did NOT get mass support from former Republicans who registered to become Democrats(that small group you can attribute to the filthy, degenerate pig-man)
    ;she got support from NEW democrats who used to be independents, and when independents are polled; the group called "independents" lean to the left. Conservatives are generally registered Republicans, not independents (although there is a level of independent conservatives; libertarans who will vote for a 3rd party)
    Therefore smug, arrogant, and 100% wrong Floyd; Bensons assumption that operation Chaos is keeping Hillary in the race is WRONG; independent voters, who reecently registered Democrat are keeping her in the race; those independents lean to the left and most likely do not listen to Limbaugh.

    Deductive reasoning is my specialty. Sorry Floyd, I understood whast Benson posted, I disagree with it, and showed you why it is wrong. Limbaugh may have gotten a few thousand voters accross the country to vote for Hillary, I don't doubt it, but overall, independents are registering Democratic to vote Hillary not so much Republicans. Republicans that honestly left the party and voted for Hillary or Obama( there is a sizeable group of former Republicans for Obama) did it because they are sick of the GOP, not because of ditto-man.

    Only the loyalist Dittohead would obey their master, and he does not exactly have an ARMY of followers. Listeners for entertainment value indeed but not followers, his audience has not grown in 5 years, it has slighly shrank as a matter of fact.

    Do you really think all "conservatives" and "republicans" listen to ditto-pig and obey like a sheep?

    next time, if you have something to say, try having a point, I disagree with Benson and explicitly explained my fine and logical reasoning. Floyd, now get on your knees and obey your master, the drug addled D.J !!

    By Blogger Minister of Propaganda, at 24 April, 2008 16:09  

  • Another thing dawned on me, just the fact that you are proud that Limbaugh instead of finding a reason why ANYONE would want to vote for McCain would rather play a little parody-game (which is nothing but a way to get press, since nobody cares about the jerk, unless he is arrested for something).

    Limbaugh can not go on the radio and tell you why McCain is so much better than his 2 opponents (who are only slightly different than him) because Limbaugh spent all of last year trashing McCain. Essentially McCain flip-flopped on everything that made him different than Bush (Limbaugh used to attack him because he was NOT a 100% Bush conservative)... So now McCain is a Bush-conservative (after the flip-flops) and instead of explaining how a candidate who changed his position on everything to become a Bush-conservative is the right choice; he would rather play around with the Democratic primary. Rush is in a hard spot here; he can not explain how great it is that McCain flip-flopped to become a Bushie (that would raise the suspicion of loyal Bushie-ditto heads that McCain can not be trusted) and he can not remind his listeners what he said last year about McCain either. The best ditto-pig can do is hope everyone forgets Rush's trashing of McCain, and hope people will be distracted with the dems instead and vote for McCain simply because he is a Republican.

    Rush basically has no credibiltiy, he trashed McCain all of last year now has to find a way to help McCain without reminiding his audience that he flipflopped to become a ditto-Bushie-con. Ditto-heads are a shrinking cult, the few, the proud the fake psuedo-Bush conservative radical. I see real conservatism on the rise, thaks to Ron Paul. He is a real CONSERVATIVE and if Rush was a CONSERVATIVE, he would have supported Paul. Young conservaties are being more attracted to Paul's brand of conservstism, the psuedo-conservative profits-over-peole era is ending


    why Am I bothering writing to a bunch of sheep, who will still worship ditto?

    By Blogger Minister of Propaganda, at 24 April, 2008 16:32  

  • Mopman said: and trust me Im not voting for any of the 3. Very little difference between the 3, of course the big business friendly media will not explain this.

    Sorry, I know this is going to be painful to read, but in this situation the Mopman has become a disciple of Operation Chaos. He has switched over to the dark side and is actually following the teachings of Limbaugh.

    Rush has repeatedly said he see little difference in the 3 candidates. And now the Mopman has come around to agree with Rush.

    Since day one, Rush has been saying that McCain is not a true conservative. The Mopman also has the same belief.

    He even agrees with Rush Limbaughs views toward the media. The Mopman said "big business friendly media will not explain this". Rush has repeatedly berated the "drive-by media" for their blatant attempt to hide their political agenda.

    Limbaugh developed Operation Chaos. And after reading the posts, everyone would have to agree that the Mopman's logic has elevated him to a master of chaos.

    There is hope after all. I just hope Rush's new supporter, the Mopman, does not revert back to his past life and start claiming that the talk show superstar is just imitating the Mopman.

    Hallelujah! The Mopman is starting to see the light!

    By Blogger The Benson Report, at 25 April, 2008 08:58  

  • Benson,

    I enjoyed your post and think you clarified how Rush has not changed his position on McCain.

    Some elections I figuratively hold my nose and vote for the least objectionable choice among the stinkers. My current hope is that McCain will choose a superior VP running mate who can take over the reins in 2013 (sounds like an awfully long time away).

    By Blogger Chromium, at 25 April, 2008 10:56  

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