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The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently reported that Hillary Clinton may owe her Texas primary win on March 4 to Rush Limbaugh's efforts at undermining the Democratic Party and spoiling its chances of winning in November by encouraging his Republican listeners to switch parties for a day and vote for Clinton. As WSJ notes, Clinton won a notably higher number of Republican crossover votes in Texas than she has in past open primary contests, possibly owing to that crucial endorsement from the pill-popping porker; and a Texas election official told WSJ that 70 of 181 voters she dealt with identified themselves as "Rush Limbaugh voters" after Limbaugh instructed his Republican listeners to cross over and vote for Clinton so as to sabotage the Democratic primary race. "I'm here to vote for Hillary Clinton," one Republican crossover voter told the official, "I want to see the Democratic Party implode." With their own nomination race settled, it seems some Republicans have found themselves with little to keep themselves occupied other than to to go and make mischief for the other party.

Since the WSJ report others such as Wonkoblog have examined evidence that, while inconclusive, does suggest that the "Limbaugh effect" may have helped Clinton in Texas as well as in Ohio on March 4. Indeed, as Barack Obama has won endorsements from prominent Democrats and newspaper editorial boards across the United States on a daily basis, most recent Clinton endorsements have come not from Democrats but from Republicans wishing to do the Democrats harm: Shortly before the Texas and Ohio primaries right-wing Cincinnati radio talk-show host Bill Cunningham endorsed Clinton after growing angry at John McCain for repudiating earlier prejudicial comments made by Cunningham against Obama; and columnist Ann Coulter recently said that if McCain received the Republican nomination she would vote for Clinton in the general election. Why not Obama ?

Because while right-wing swine like Limbaugh, Cunningham, and Coulter may hate Hillary Clinton, they fear Barack Obama. They fear Obama because they don't know how they will deal with him in the general election race if he is the Democratic nominee. They fear him because most polls now show him to be the favorite Democrat to beat McCain in November. They fear him because he threatens to take the country in a new direction that will leave them behind and make them irrelevant. Limbaugh and others like him are a product of the Clinton era, which as we know was also the Gingrich era. They know Bill and Hillary Clinton, and they thrive in the very atmosphere of divisiveness and cynicism for which the Clinton era is best-known. Deprived of a Republican candidate whom they consider a "real conservative," Limbaugh & Co. would probably be as happy with Hillary Clinton in the White House as with John McCain.

Anyone looking for a good reason NOT to vote for Hillary Clinton in the upcoming Democratic primaries need look no further her new best friend.