The Agents of Operation Chaos Trounce The Agents Of Change

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No wonder Hillary Clinton thinks Rush Limbaugh has a crush on her. If not for El Rushbo Hillary would probably have gotten up this morning as a former presidential candidate. Oh, she stands no chance of getting the nomination of course but her narrow win in Indiana last night left enough wind in her sails that ditching the vessel at this point would damage that image of being her being a "fighter" that she has tried so hard to develop and which she'll need as, no matter what happens this year, her eyes remain fixed on the prize.

And Operation Chaos, which the msm has sneered at and heckled has proven to be a huge success. Even the Obama campaign is acknowledging as much,

Barack Obama’s campaign issued an e-mail on Tuesday night that appeared to relegate Hillary Clinton’s lead in Indiana to efforts by Rush Limbaugh to wreak havoc in the Democratic presidential primary contest.

In an e-mail entitled “The Limbaugh Effect in Indiana = 7 percent,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton wrote: “According to the latest exit polling data, 17 percent of voters in the Indiana primary today said they would vote for John McCain in a Clinton/McCain match-up. Forty-one percent of that number is constituted by people who voted Clinton in the primary but also indicated they will vote for McCain in the general election. That comes out to just under 7 percent of the primary electorate the number that may be attributed to a Limbaugh Effect.”

Rush, of course spells out the true dimensions of Operation Chaos' impact best:

RUSH: Three times in the last 12 hours, maybe 18 hours, three times in the last 18 hours, the Obama campaign has said, most recently in a conference call with reporters about 20 minutes ago, that the only reason Mrs. Clinton won Indiana was because of me and Operation Chaos. They have the numbers to back it up. The Obama campaign putting out the number that Operation Chaos was responsible for 7%, she got a seven-point bump as a result of Operation Chaos. They made that point again today in a conference call. On that conference call, the haughty John Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts who served in Vietnam, also made this point to the reporters on the Obama conference call.

KERRY: If it hadn't been for Republicans taking Democratic ballots, he likely would have won in Indiana, too. So you have -- really there's no masquerade now. Rush Limbaugh was tampering with the primary, and the GOP has clearly declared that they want Hillary Clinton as the candidate.

RUSH: Senator Kerry and those of you in the Obama campaign, first off, Operation Chaos has nothing to do with the Republican Party. The Republican Party hasn't the guts to do Operation Chaos. Were there no Operation Chaos, the Republican Party would not have a plan. But I am not affiliated with the Republican Party here, sir, and the rest of you in the Drive-By Media and in the Obama campaign, Operation Chaos had nothing to do and to this day has nothing to do with seeing to it that Hillary Clinton was the Democrat Party nominee. Operation Chaos began when it was a fait accompli that the nominee would be Obama. But because Senator McCain and the Republican Party refuse to enter this campaign and be critical of Obama because they're afraid of racial charges, it was up to somebody to bloody up Obama politically, and that had to be Clinton. Who else could it be? Operation Chaos thus was born to keep Mrs. Clinton in the race, and it worked. Obama has been bloodied, the superdelegates are refusing to talk to her today. They don't want to meet with her today, but she has an ace-in-the-hole, and that's the superdelegates in Florida and Michigan. Those delegations, she controls the committee that will determine the outcome of Florida and Michigan. So this is not over.

Could it have been more perfect? Had Obama won in a landslide, Operation Chaos would have been mocked by those who live to mock your host. But I had courage, and I took the great political risk, the career risk, knowing full well that if Operation Chaos could have been minimized in any way, it would have been, and once again the cycle would repeat and the Drive-Bys would once again claim this program irrelevant. Had Hillary won in a blowout in Indiana, Operation Chaos would have been relegated to a token split-screen debate: "Was or wasn't Operation Chaos a factor?" But this cliff hanger, this 2% margin, this 20,000 vote difference, there can be no doubt that the difference was indeed Operation Chaos. I'm watching last night the returns, and I receive an e-mail blast, the first of two that went out last night from the Obama campaign: Bill Burton blaming me and Operation Chaos. The first one around 7:50, I think, the next one came around 10:50, and that blast at 10:50 from the Obama campaign to all the political reporters covering this campaign, said, "Limbaugh has to be responsible for this." It was Republicans, and the exit polls show that 65% of conservative Republicans voted Hillary, 53% of Republicans voted Hillary. There can be no question here, despite the Drive-Bys' attempt to downplay it, and there are some who are doing that. But that second blast went out about 10:50, and it established that as far as the Obama campaign is concerned, Operation Chaos was worth a seven-point bump to Mrs. Clinton.

In a year when Republicans have every reason to be demoralized, Operation Chaos has actually thrown real enthusiasm into conservative ranks by sewing discord among the Dems and allowing time and circumstances to start to reveal the Dems in ways that, if Obama had taken this race earlier, the msm would never have done.

And, needless to say the Left is not happy with the wildly successful Operation Chaos. From the Huffington Post:

How can you not love a guy who 's got enemies this vile? We all owe Rush a debt of gratitude...again.

Allahpundit at Hot Air also talks about OC

Ed Driscoll also gets Chaotic

That Didn't Take Long

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Almost as soon as the Great One suspended Operation Chaos he has lifted the "operational pause":

RUSH: A TV station in Indianapolis thinks they caused the operational pause in Operation Chaos. WISH-TV, the anchor Eric Halvorson and his report last night on Operation Chaos.

HALVORSON: Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh called for a pause in what he calls Operation Chaos. It's a call to conservatives to vote in Democratic primaries to extend the nomination battle. Yesterday, 24 Hour News 8 Jim Shella reported on official reactions to Operation Chaos here, a story Limbaugh referenced on the air today.

RUSH: So they're implying, ladies and gentlemen, that Operation Chaos, the operational pause was due to their report. I can understand. I can understand a local television station wanting to think they're a factor in a major nationwide operation, and they're doing a hard-hitting investigation out there, that's what local TV news is known for. I don't want to deflate them. I don't want to ruin their day out there in the newsroom at WISH-TV, but the operational pause in Operation Chaos was due strictly to the Obama press conference yesterday while we awaited what I knew was going to happen, media reaction, because we had to determine what course of action we would order next given the media reaction to Obama yesterday. And I can just tell you, the operational pause is now lifted. Operation Chaos is back at full speed, and we have no change in direction, orders from headquarters remain exactly what they are: You are to go out and sustain the Democrat primary season by virtue of voting for Hillary Clinton. Nothing has changed, ladies and gentlemen, nothing whatsoever.

Rush-haters everywhere can now begin their expected mantra about "mind-numbed robots" and the Democratic powers-that-be can recommence taking their antacids, knowing that Operation Chaos is back out there, working.

Of Chickens And Roosting

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For Barack Obama today "the chicken's have come home...to roost" as his longstanding friendship with radical, pastor Jeremiah Wright has, for reasons that only he can fathom, done what Hillary Clinton has been trying to do for months; draw real blood from the Obama campaign.

Obama, whose public relationship with Wright has gone from his being Obama's close spiritual advisor and friend to his "former pastor" to today when we see that Obama thinks that,

"...based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him as well as I thought either."

Wright's interviews and speeches have provided endless fodder for news outlets of every variety. And many of them are making points that have to hurt.

Rich Lowery writes about how Obama's credibility has been damaged, pointing out the following:

In a slippery dance, Obama maintains that he was thoroughly shocked by Wright’s original radioactive statements and hadn’t heard him say such things, although he did hear other (always carefully unspecified) “controversial” things. The threat to Obama as the paladin of the “new politics” is that, as he dodges and distances on Wright, people will come to agree with his former pastor’s newly dismissive evaluation: “He says what he has to say as a politician.”

Victor David Hanson highlights the damage Wright has done to Blacks:

In short, Wright's speech on black-right brainers, white-left brainers — replete with bogus stereotypes and crude voice imitations — was about as racist as they come and at one time antithetical to what the NAACP was once all about. Again, the Obama campaign and its appendages have set back racial relations a generation. Just ten years ago, any candidate, black or white, would have rejected Wright making a speech about genetic differences in respective black and white brains. Now it's given to civil rights organizations by the possible next President's pastor and spiritual advisor — and done to wild applause for an organization founded on the idea that we are innately the same, while being gushed over by ignorant "commentators."

Those on the Left are keenly aware of the damage done, as well. E.J. Dionne observes,

Then something happened. Specifically, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. And he keeps happening, holding tightly to a spotlight that was turned his way by a certain politician whom the preacher dismisses for being a politician. First came his Friday appearance on public television with Bill Moyers, then his NAACP address in Detroit on Sunday, and his National Press Club speech yesterday.

Obama, once seen as a prophet, is now merely a human being capable of performing indifferently in debate and of making statements about bitter voters that made some voters bitter.

Frank Schaeffer at the HuffPo shows a bit of desperation, basically just trying to will the damage away by writing the following Pollyanna-ish drivel,

Now it's time for all concerned to take a deep breath and admit that religion in politics is nothing more than a sideshow. It's time to move on. And that goes for Republicans, and Clinton supporters, as well as for Obama supporters.

Here's the one thing we should all be able to agree on: when religion jumps the track and crashes into places it doesn't belong we'd all be better off ignoring the silliness.

But the fact that real damage has in fact been done can be seen by the fact that Rush Limbaugh today officially suspended Operation Chaos:

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I am calling an operational pause in Operation Chaos. We have a week to figure out now what's best to do. If your state still allows voter registration, keep that up, continue to register as a Democrat in upcoming Operation Chaos primaries. I think it's too late in Indiana and North Carolina. Oregon, last day is today. There are other states coming down the pike, and Puerto Rico. But I'm calling an operational pause, and I will tell you why. My first gut reaction, my instinct, in listening to the audio sound bites of Obama today throwing Jeremiah Wright off the planet, he didn't throw him under the bus, he put him in the space shuttle and he sent him to the space station so he can pal around with the Russians that are up there. Then I watched during the bottom-of-the-hour break here, I decided to watch the Drive-By Media coverage of this, because it became obvious to me -- see, I read the stitches on the fastball; I can read between the lines, and I know that most of the Drive-Bys are in the tank for Obama.

What I think I saw an indication of, I watched Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, discussing this, and Matthews was full of praise, and he accepted every theme Obama brought up, and he said Obama was dead right. "Why do we have to have this preacher inserting himself in the presidential campaign for the last three days? Obama rightly said he's not talking to him any more, may talk to him later, but Obama was dead right on, on this." Matthews is missing the whole point. Obama coulda done this in church the first time he heard the guy. We all now with common sense realize here that Obama did this out of political expediency today to save a dwindling and plunging campaign. The Drive-Bys, by the time those in the tank for Obama get through spinning this tonight, this is what I need to wait for, ladies and gentlemen, is why I've called an operational pause, because I want to find out what we need to do tomorrow based on how effective the Drive-Bys are in spinning what Obama said today and make it look like it was courageous. You watch, "It was courageous. This is one of the greatest risks a politician's ever taken in the United States! This was a risk we have never seen taken before. This is a man with courage and guts and fortitude. This is a man we want to be our president." This is the kind of thing I'm expecting tonight from the Drive-Bys.

My gut reaction, after the audio sound bites, was to issue new orders, because I saw, you know, AP/Ipsos poll has Hillary up over McCain by nine points, 50-41. My gut reaction here, after hearing Obama, was to issue orders changing directives, i.e., vote Obama in remaining primaries. But I'm holding back. That's why I'm calling an operational pause. Because I want to see what the Drive-Bys are going to do and I want to see how the superdelegates are affected by this. You can't vote in North Carolina and Indiana 'til Tuesday anyway, so there's really no pause. It's not as though the election is tomorrow. I just wanted you to know your commanding officers are eagerly, diligently, and effectively planning the next strategy here, based on this speech and the reaction to it

There is something almost Shakespearean in this situation as, while Obama has been trying to fend off the blows of his enemies, this possible fatal blow has been struck by a friend.

Operation Chaos Scores Again - John McCain, Not So Much

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North Carolina Republican Party- Obama Ad



McCain Condemns Obama, Rev. Wright Ad



The North Carolina Republican Ad which points out Barack Obama's friendship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has gotten scads of attention over the last few days, most of it missing the point. Chief among the point-miss-ers is, as usual, John McCain who, sight unseen denounced it. McCain, of course never misses an opportunity to remind Republicans, who periodically try to forget, how much contempt he has for them. His criticism of the ad is empty and baseless. Listen to him becoming increasingly agitated in the clip, above and you'll notice that while he's railing against "the kind of ad that was put up by the North Carolina Republican party" he never actually says why he finds it to be so objectionable. Probably because there is nothing objectionable about it. It is a mere restatement of the fact that Obama has had a longstanding relationship with the racist Rev.

In fact the ad is ostensibly aimed at two Democratic gubernatorial candidates but if they were its real targets the ad would have to be considered a failure. Their connection to Obama and his relationship with Wright is too remote to have any effect on any rational voter. It is kind of like saying that you won't vote for Congressman X because his third cousin is a pedophile. There have to be better arguments against these guys.

Rush Limbaugh sees the ad as another beachhead in Operation Chaos' master plan, reminding voters why Obama is untrustworthy leading them into Hillary Clinton's camp. On these grounds Rush is probably right. The North Carolina Primary is May 6 and the timing of the ad is coincidental enough that it is likely no coincidence at all. McCain probably figures that coming out against the ad and slugging the Republicans will help him with Dems and Independents. He can't be blamed for doing something that will benefit him but somehow he always manages to do it at the expense of the rest of the Republican Party. This screw-you attitude may fit his personality and it may gain him some non-Republican votes but you have to wonder how much of this Republicans are willing to take. It is only April. Another seven months of the same and McCain may just find that he's picked up a few new friends and lost a lot more old.

Sister Toldjah also has her say on the matter.

Operation Chaos Triumphs!

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The results of the Pennsylvania primary are in and the winner is...Rush Limbaugh! Rush is the architect of what is probably the smartest election strategy of the year: the notorious Operation Chaos. Chaos is a response to the Democratic habit of crossing party lines in primaries to vote for Republicans, frequently more to disrupt the Republican field than due to their support of any Republican candidate. It is his contention (supported by more than a little evidence) that John McCain wouldn't be the current presumptive Republican nominee but for Independent and Democratic votes.

Seeing the Dems were in the most contentious primary fight in a long time Rush started encouraging his listeners to cross party lines and vote for whomever was the underdog in order to protract the very contentious Democratic campaign. With joy in his heart and a laugh in his voice Rush came up with the very Bondian name, Operation Chaos for his plan and thus was another Left-wing headache born.

The efficacy of Rush's strategy can be witnessed in the sheer irritation towards it that the Left has shown. At one point, in Ohio the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, at the behest of a Democratic Board member looked into prosecuting any voters involved in Chaos. Sadly for the Democrats, it went nowhere.

The other way to see how well Operation Chaos is working is by looking at the numbers. According to the Boston Globe:

About 100,000 GOP loyalists voted for her in Ohio, 119,000 in Texas, and about 38,000in Mississippi, exit polls show.

The numbers for the effect of Chaos aren't in yet for yesterday's result but it is almost a certainty that part of what looks like a large margin of victory for Hillary Clinton in Pennsylyvania is due to Rush's "foot soldiers".

And it looks like, just as Limbaugh had planned the Democratic race will continue with the candidates continuing to tear each other apart and weakening their party, which can be nothing but good news for Republicans come November.

Below is a transcript of a call from Rush's show yesterday which shows the inner workings of this most public of conspiracies.

RUSH: We have an Operation Chaos volunteer on the phone from Exton, Pennsylvania, by the name of Bill. Bill, you're doing the Lord's work out there. Thanks for the call. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. Yeah, we went to vote for Hillary. I was a gun-toting evangelical clinging to those guns and clinging to my God. I went out and voted. They asked me on the way out, the pollsters asked me, "Oh, were you one of the people who switched parties?" I said, "Yeah, I switched parties." "So why did you do that?" I said, "Because of Operation Chaosssss."

RUSH: All right!

CALLER: And then they went and they said, "Okay, what are the issues? Were they Iraq, global warming?" "No," I said. "No, it's because of Operation Chaos, led by the commander-in-chief, Rush," and she just laughed. She laughed her head off. Then I went over to the Hillary table and I was there with my Republican committeeman, which he's on board with Operation Chaos as well, and I said, "I voted for Hillary," and she said, "Oh, thank you very much. Thank you very much." "But," I said, "Tomorrow, I'll be reregistering Republican," and she just laughed. It was just a classic moment.

RUSH: That's all they care about is the now anyway. You know, they'll deal with the general later. They just care about the now. They're so happy you did it. I know the Clinton campaign's grateful as they can be for Operation Chaos. They can't ever say so, but they're grateful as hell.

CALLER: It was awesome.

RUSH: So you had an exit pollster, it was an exit pollster, and they asked you if you're a switcher --

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: -- and which issues mattered, and when you said Operation Chaos, Rush Limbaugh, commander-in-chief?

CALLER: She just laughed and laughed. I said, "We want to keep this going through the convention," and she just laughed. They were young kids. They didn't really know until that day that it was in effect, but this Republican Chester County. There were quite a few there.

RUSH: Couple more questions. You say they were young. How old were these exit pollsters?

CALLER: 18, 20.

RUSH: Don't be so convinced that they don't know about Operation Chaos.

CALLER: Oh, no. They knew about it because they'd heard about it that day, I'm pretty sure. They didn't say that.

RUSH: Okay, so they laughed about it. So they must be hearing this a lot.

CALLER: Oh, yes. I'm saying, there was before -- I got there around 11 o'clock, and there was about 150 people already voted. But that's a lot because we're in a Republican county, and they were just laughing. Especially when I said, "Well, we're there to make sure the Dems keep fighting it out 'til they go to the convention."

RUSH: Way to go. Well, there you have it. There's Bill from Exton, Pennsylvania, one of the hundreds of thousands of volunteers in Operation Chaos scattered across remaining primary states. He was happy to be in Pennsylvania today voting as an Operation Chaos operative, following, by the way, to the T orders from headquarters.


BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: York, Pennsylvania. Tim, I'm glad you called. An Operation Chaos volunteer on the phone. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Mega bitter Pennsylvanian dittos.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: I have two reports, actually. One report from Saturday. I waited nearly all day for the live campaign representative to call me from the Hillary campaign, and finally the call came in.

RUSH: Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait. Why did you know that a call was coming? Why were you waiting for a phone call?

CALLER: Oh, I have never received so many phone calls. I thought I was on the Do Not Call list, but I'm not sure now.

RUSH: Wait a minute. I want to set the stage here so people understand. You're a Republican, Operation Chaos volunteer, and you registered Democrat to vote for Hillary?

CALLER: Yes. And finally that registration went through. Unfortunately, it didn't for my wife. She remained Republican, although she had tried. She did a mail-in and it didn't work.

RUSH: Yeah, there was a deadline. There was a deadline.

CALLER: Yep. But I did. I succeeded in becoming an operative, and I succeeded in getting the live phone call on Saturday, and the gentleman, very politely asked me, you know, if I was going to show my support for Hillary, go out and vote. I said, "Oh, absolutely. I wouldn't miss it," and he started thanking me, and I said, "Sure, I'm an operative for Operation Chaos." He was laughing so hard, he could barely say, "Thank you for your support," and hang up.

RUSH: They know. You know damn well he know. Despite the Drive-Bys trying to make it look like it's insignificant, ineffective, it isn't happening, they know. The exit pollsters today are laughing when Operation Chaos volunteers tell 'em they're operating with Operation Chaos orders.

CALLER: Well, the second report is from the polling station. I haven't been able to go over yet. I'm just chomping at the bit, but my wife was by earlier, and like I said, she voted Republican today for a couple of local things, and she reported that in-line campaign representatives were going down through with a notebook and just taking notes, asking people if they were part of Operation Chaos.

RUSH: (laughs) No kidding.

CALLER: They weren't throwing their bodies down in front of people telling them they couldn't vote, but they were taking notes. Not taking names, but seemed to be taking notes of what the responses were. I don't know what they're preparing for, but --

RUSH: Now, let me ask you specifically: Were these campaign workers or were these pollsters?

CALLER: Well, they were probably -- no, no. They would have been pollsters, you know, outside the campaign building.

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: Outside the whole building.

RUSH: Before you'd gotten in there where where's no electioneering involved, before you got in there, before your wife got in there and got in line to vote. This is outside --

CALLER: Outside.

RUSH: -- before she's gone up and signed up, signed in -- and operatives, campaign operatives, pollsters want to know how many people are with Operation Chaos?

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: (laughter)

CALLER: There were several of my neighbors there that I know are Republican that were just kind of smiling, you know, giving the thumbs up to my wife. (laughing) You know, to believe that it's not a force to be reckoned with, I can't wait 'til tomorrow when I switch back. I really can't, because I've been getting these cravings for tofu. I stopped by and looked at the new Priuses. It's making me sick.

RUSH: Yeah, you can't hang onto this too long because --

CALLER: No.

RUSH: -- of the addictive forces that can overcome you.

CALLER: It's mentally straining, I tell you. (laughs)

RUSH: Well, they're actually asking people in line -- both Republicans and Democrats, by the way?

CALLER: Oh, yeah, yeah.

RUSH: If you're a part of Operation Chaos?

CALLER: Just going down through the line.

RUSH: "Are you Operation Chaos?" All right, that's great news. Well, you're going to go reregister tomorrow, and probably a lot others are too. A lot of others will too but that story will never be written, about the shrinking Democrat voter registration.

CALLER: I know, I know.

RUSH: (laughter.)

CALLER: I just want to get it over with as quickly as possible and am trying to make an impact.

RUSH: How come you haven't voted yet?

CALLER: I work. I'm a Republican. I'm busy working.

RUSH: Right. Well, don't --

CALLER: I'm hoping I can get through at the end of the day.

RUSH: No, no. There's no hoping in Operation Chaos.

CALLER: (laughs)

RUSH: Our mission relies not at all on hope. You've got to get in there and vote. Those are your orders!

CALLER: I will get in there and vote.

RUSH: All right. That's the only reason to switch party registration.

CALLER: Oh, believe me; I wouldn't miss it for the world.

RUSH: Tim, thanks for the call.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush.

RUSH: We really appreciate it.

Yes. Yes we do.

The Anchoress has something to say about Operation Chaos.