Has Senator Hillary Clinton Been Relegated to a de facto Pawn of Rush Limbaugh?

By

Dr. Sherman N. Miller

3/12/2008

As the 2008 Democratic Party Presidential Primary circus moves into the homestretch, it is becoming clear that the super-delegates may be the final arbitrators in deciding who gets the nomination.  However, the ultra right wing now has a hand in maintaining confusion in the Democratic Party camp where the Democratic Party Presidential standard bearer would be weaken from a protracted struggle that will leave the party suffering the effects a rift going into their national convention.

Senator Hillary Clinton has the dubious honor of being a de facto pawn of Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh is hell bent on exploiting the teaching of the Great Chinese War Philosopher Sun Tzu on the Democratic Party to keep the White House in the hands of the Republicans when the current economic debacle suggests that a Democrat should easily win the Presidency. Sun Tzu wrote, “I make the enemy see my strength as weakness and my weaknesses as strengths while I cause his strengths to become weaknesses and discover where he is not strong. . .”

Limbaugh recognized that the historic nature of the Obama and Clinton campaign effort is leading to historic voter turnouts in the primary elections which portends a massive voter turnout in the general election unless this new vote becomes disenchanted with the process. Therefore, Limbaugh sought to make this higher voter turnout appear as a weakness by helping to deny Obama the nomination by encouraging his supporters to vote for Clinton in the Texas and Ohio primaries which appears to force the super delegates back into the untenable position of having to select the Presidential candidate.

Jim Meyers writing in the February 28, 2008 Newsmax.com, “Limbaugh Urges Republicans to Vote for Hillary” shares Limbaugh’s tactic. “Citing a story in a Texas newspaper headlined “Many Republicans to Vote for Obama, ‘Limbaugh told listeners this week: ‘I understand I've got a big challenge here to try to get Republicans to change their minds on this and vote for Hillary to keep her in the race, to keep that party at war with itself . . .

“It's clear that Republicans in Texas have been listening to this program where we have advised Republicans to pimp themselves for a day and go vote in the Democrat primary . . . I just think, at this stage, the longer Hillary can stay in this, the better for us.”

“Limbaugh said he wants to see Hillary and Barack Obama continue battling, noting that the battle will end if Hillary is vanquished and Obama can focus completely on presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.”

It is clear that Limbaugh achieved his nasty objective. First, we must understand that his listeners are free to vote for whomever they desire even if their motives are dubious. Limbaugh borrowed another teaching of Sun Tzu, “. . . One able to gain the victory by modifying his tactics in accordance with the enemy situation may be said to be divine.”  It is obvious that Limbaugh recognized the desperation in the Democratic Party selection process, so he has exploited its weakness giving him the right to celebrate when Clinton won Texas and Ohio.

Limbaugh’s tactic appears to be premised on his belief that keeping Senator Hillary Clinton around will highlight eventually race in the campaign by kindling White American pride in voting white because she will become desperate and attempt to rally White America to her side.  There is a hole in this race baiting logic. The US median age is under roughly 40 so many of the young white voters attracted to Obama know little about yesteryear’s race baiting politics. These white young people may view Limbaugh’s tactics as comparable to the late Governor George Wallace proclamation, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever” once the underpinning of the nasty Limbaugh scheme is highlighted in the media.

You have to give Limbaugh credit because he has us scratching our heads asking did Senator Hillary Clinton win Texas and Ohio on her own merit or is she now merely a puppet of the far right? My guess is that Limbaugh will see his plan to manipulate the Democratic Presidential Primary effort backfire because nothing in the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary has followed the traditional political script. The national economy is a disaster with people losing their jobs and homes. People also can not afford their utilities and to drive their cars.  Thus, Rush Limbaugh will learn that the huge army of people coming out to vote in this historic Presidential selection process may upend his political strategy because he may find himself the victim of an old adage that people vote on three things: their pocketbook, pocketbook, and pocketbook.

Will Rush Limbaugh guarantee that Senator John Mc Cain loses the US Presidency by assuming messianic Limbaugh can manipulate the Democratic Party selection process without incurring any adverse consequences for his underhanded behavior?   The Limbaugh action might be legal, but it surely carries the stench of attempting to turn John Mc Cain’s weakness into his strength by attempting to focus attention of the American people away from their appalling economic plight. I think the American people are too smart to allow this reincarnation game of 21 Century race baiting scheme to gain legitimacy.