Pols use each other for their own ends

I have had many good laughs at radio talker Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos. He has urged Republican presidential primary election voters first in Texas and Ohio, then in Pennsylvania, and now Indiana and North Carolina, to cross over and vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, since John McCain is already anointed as the GOP nominee.

There has been substantial evidence right along that this has greatly helped Hillary and hurt Obama. The national press has largely ignored it or refused to publicize it. Exit polls and other voting data after each primary, however, has confirmed the success of Operation Chaos.

Last night, the Obama campaign blamed its loss to Hillary Clinton in Indiana on Operation Chaos. This ends the publicity shutout in the mass media for Rush Limbaugh, and brings him center stage, into the middle of the hot Democratic campaign.

Obviously, Rush's number one objective is to build listenership and audience numbers for his daily, nationally-syndicated talk radio show in the Arbitron ratings, in order to sell more advertising and sign up more stations to carry his broadcast. Obama's boys crediting Rush in their national press conferences last night is a major step forward in this direction.

Only secondarily, did Rush want to influence the Democratic campaign. For those who listen carefully, and therefore understand the meaning of Operation Chaos, it was not to back Hillary for president and defeat Obama. It was to keep the chaos and disorder in the Democratic Party going for the longest-possible time, leading to a deeper split, harder to heal in less time, and benefit the GOP nominee next fall. Rush wants to beat both Hillary and Obama. He just needed to built Hillary up enough so that she could justify staying in longer.

Obama is obviously a much weaker opponent for McCain than Hillary would be. Now that he is the likely Democratic nominee, Rush can turn his fire on him. With the increasing number of rookie mistakes Obama is making (like blaming Rush for his loss in Indiana, for instance), the outrageous conduct of his 20-year pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the speeches by Obama's bitter, elitist wife Michelle--it looks like a McCain route, about like George McGovern took from Richard Nixon in 1972.

Even worse for Obama, the racial divide in the Democratic primary vote is wide--middle-aged, blue collar white men and their wives are voting for Hillary in droves, and telling the exit pollsters they'll vote for McCain in the fall if Obama is the nominee. That's where the route will come from, tipping many big, industrial states to McCain.

The night ended with Obama helping Rush enormously, just as Rush helped Hillary stay in as long as she has. Talk about pols reaching across the aisle to scratch each other's back, even if unintentionally.