Reports around the blogosphere tell me that Rush Limbaugh encouraged his listeners to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. I guess Rush thinks Hillary will be the easier candidate to beat. (Or he hates McCain so much that he wants him to lose.)
Who do you think would be the stronger Democratic candidate against John McCain in November and why?
Discuss that and whatever else is on your mind in the comments.
I am going to be away from the internets all weekend!
March 8th, 2008 at 8:51 am
It could be the motivation was not that Hillary would be easier to beat, but that it would be beneficial to continue the Democratic nominating process all the way through the convention.
Had Obama swept “Super Tuesday II”, it would likely have forced Clinton out of the race.
Whether or not Rush had anything to do with the current situation (and I doubt seriously he had much of an effect) what we have now is much more entertaining than the alternative.
Although this doesn’t bode well
recreate68.org
March 8th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
The Dem’s situation today is very parallel to those of 1984 and 2004. Obama is akin to either Gary Hart or Howard Dean. Clinton, either Walter Mondale or John Kerry. Note that Mondale and Kerry both lost. If Clinton somehow smashes the hope out of enough people, twists enough arms and bribes enough super delegates to steal the nomination- then, sickeningly, we could be looking at a president McCain (despite the fact he was born in Panama). If Obama wins the nomination, he wins the presidency in a 40+ state landslide. The right isn’t excited to vote for McCain, but they would be excited to beat Hillary Clinton. Nominate Obama, and the right either stays home, or actually votes for Obama to some degree just to spite McCain.
March 9th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Rush just wanted to screw things up for the Dems and have their campaign go on for longer. I actually think now that a longer primary cycle for the Dems will rally more of the party across a wider portion of the country. There are states whose votes have literally almost never counted before where things actually matter this year.
There’s no way that Obama wins in November with 40+ states. I have him likely winning in 22 states, then I think it’ll come down to whether he can eek it out in MO and/or CO in order for him to win this year. I agree though that Obama can better counter McCain by cutting into his appeal to independent voters.
I also agree that Clinton is taking some plays from the Mondale playbook…the “who do you want to answer the urgent phone call in the middle of the night” thing was right from a TV ad of his.
Yea, I’m biased for Clinton, but, I think, she can win in 26 states, which means she wins overall. I’m still not sure about WV and CO, but it won’t matter either way for her. I agree that she motivates the base of the GOP more to come out against her (that’s where Obama is getting some of his support from now – from anti-Hillary voters), but I really think that she can put the GOP on the defensive across a wider portion of the electoral map than Obama can right now.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Mondale playbook? More like Rove playbook.
Put the GOP on the defensive? More like offensive.