Interesting article that gives surprisingly high numbers of Republicans who have voted for Hillary Clinton in the Ohio, Texas and Mississippi primaries.
Boston Globe in a March 17th article quoted below has some surprising numbers and comments:
Many voting for Clinton to boost GOP seek to prolong bitter battle
By Scott Helman - Boston Globe Staff / March 17, 2008
For a party that loves to hate the Clintons, Republican voters have cast an awful lot of ballots lately for Senator Hillary Clinton: About 100,000 GOP loyalists voted for her in Ohio, 119,000 in Texas, and about 38,000 in Mississippi, exit polls show.
A sudden change of heart? Hardly.
Boston Globe article can be found at: http://www.boston.com/...
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The article on Boston Globe writes that Republicans have taken to voting for Senator Clinton in the Democratic Party primaries. They are doing so in response to Rush Limbaugh's call to vote for Hillary Clinton, especially since Senator McCain has won the GOP nomination.
These voters who would never vote for Clinton in the general election are doing this so as to have a drawn out and bitter nomination battle for the Democratic Party's nomination, or because they feel that Hillary would be an easier candidate to beat in the general election.
"It's as simple as, I don't think McCain can beat Obama if Obama is the Democratic choice," said Kyle Britt, 49, a Republican-leaning independent from Huntsville, Texas, who voted for Clinton in the March 4 primary. "I do believe Hillary can mobilize enough [anti-Clinton] people to keep her out of office." Britt, who works in financial services, said he is certain he will vote for McCain in November.
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Local Republican activists say stories like these abound in Texas, Ohio, and Mississippi, the three states where the recent surge in Republicans voting for Clinton was evident.
Until Texas and Ohio voted on March 4, Obama was receiving far more support than Clinton from GOP voters, many of whom have said in interviews that they were willing to buck their party because they like the Illinois senator. In eight Democratic contests in January and February where detailed exit polling data were available on Republicans, Obama received, on average, about 57 percent of voters who identified themselves as Republicans. Clinton received, on average, a quarter of the Republican votes cast in those races.
SNIP
Conservative radio giant Rush Limbaugh said on Fox News on Feb. 29 that he was urging conservatives to cross over and vote for Clinton, their bête noire nonpareil, "if they can stomach it."
"I want our party to win. I want the Democrats to lose," Limbaugh said. "They're in the midst of tearing themselves apart right now. It is fascinating to watch. And it's all going to stop if Hillary loses."
He added, "I know it's a difficult thing to do to vote for a Clinton, but it will sustain this soap opera, and it's something I think we need."
These huge numbers of Republicans responding to Rush's call to vote for Hillary Clinton can have implications in upcoming open voting Democratic primaries .
They already have inflated and distorted Hillary Clinton's support in general and in different voting segments.
They have also distorted Senator Obama's numbers showing trends that are non existent or highly magnified because of this new influx of voters who are doing so with a strategic intent to weaken and harm the Democratic Party and its Presidential Primaries.