Following Up on the Drug Dealer Effect

Apparently, not that I listen to drug dealers, but apparently Rush Limbaugh couldn't get enough of himself yesterday when discussing his Operation Gay-os and its effect on the Indiana Democratic primary.

"The train would not have come off the tracks of the Obama campaign, were it not for Operation Chaos. The Jeremiah Wright stuff and all that, yes, that would have happened, but nothing could have done anything about it because Mrs. Clinton would have been effectively out of the race, not able to mount a campaign. So we'd be in a far different spot today than we were so the purpose of this is to keep this going -- exactly what's happened.”

As I've mentioned a few times, there is no evidence-- none-- that suggests the drug dealer had any effect on the outcome whatsoever. That's not saying there isn't anecdotal evidence that wackos did take Limbaugh's oxy-contin induced advice and vote for Hillary because some surely did. Just not enough to prove any sort of tampering or "effect." Just like Bill O'Reilly, Limbaugh is irrelevant when it comes to political discourse. I understand why Obama wants to make it appear as if Hillary has now committed the ultimate Democratic sin by making peace with O'Reilly and Limbaugh, but aside from the spin Obama's wanting to give off, there's nothing in the exit poll data to suggest Limbaugh helped Hillary in Indiana.

From the WaPo:

The Clinton campaign credited its narrow win to the organization of Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.) and the more than 100 campaign stops made by Clinton and her husband and daughter. Robby Mook, Clinton's Indiana director, said she did better than expected in Indianapolis and in northwestern Indiana, where Obama was expected to benefit from his exposure on Chicago television.

But he [Obama] fared better than the final polls predicted by cutting into Clinton's huge margin among several key groups in Ohio and Pennsylvania, such as white women and white voters without college degrees. He racked up big totals in college towns and with African American voters in Gary and Indianapolis, as expected. But he also won by 22 points in Hamilton County, an affluent Republican-leaning suburb north of Indianapolis; by 12 points in the county that includes Fort Wayne, after losing similar Rust Belt cities elsewhere; and lost by only four points in Evansville, on the southern border.

For every talking point that Limbaugh and his fellow chickenhawks can use to say they tilted the outcome, there's just as much to show that Operation Gay-os had no effect on very large sectors of Republican support. What's more amazing is that a conservative state such as Indiana can have over 1.6 million people show up to vote in a Democratic primary. Of course that story takes a backseat to right wing talking points that a drug dealer claims to tamper with election results.

Not to mention that Obama actually closed a very large gap in Indiana despite the few who did show up on behalf of Limbaugh. Obama was never going to win Indiana anyway. But dang near did.