Update, 3/12, 6:11am: I've now posted a more comprehensive blog entry with looking at the numbers and what they mean.
Do the math and 25% of Hillary Clinton's support came from the GOP. That should be enough for a delegate or two, perhaps more.
These are people who will never, ever vote for Hillary Clinton in the general election.
Simply put, Republicans are gaming the Democratic primary.
Now that John McCain is the nominee of the GOP, Republican participation in Democratic primaries is skyrocketing -- and they are voting for Clinton.
Before Texas, on average 1.8% of voters in Republican primaries were Republicans who supported Hillary Clinton. In Texas, 4.1% of voters were Republicans who supported Hillary Clinton.
Today, 10% of voters were Republicans who supported Hillary Clinton. Again, she will not win these voters in November. They are purely screwing with our process.
This is a major issue -- and it needs to be addressed.
This is the Limbaugh strategy in action.
8:20pm: Updated below.
Clinton people will push back against this type of analysis arguing that we only care about these trends because they are now going against Obama.
They are absolutely wrong.
First, the reason why Barack Obama won GOP support was because of his appeal to moderates and independents. The reason why Hillary Clinton won GOP support is because Rush Limbaugh is encouraging his dittoheads to screw with the Democratic primary process.
Second, when Obama was receiving support from Republicans, there was still a Republican primary going on. Any Republican who supported Obama had to give up the opportunity to have a say in the Republican primary process. Now that the nominee is McCain, there is no disincentive for rabid Republicans to not cross-over and help pick their opponent.
Third, and this is the clincher, the number of Republican voters is dramatically higher now than it was before. In January and February, 4% of voters in Democratic primaries and caucuses were Republicans. Today, 13% were -- that's more than three times as many as before!
Fourth, the closest Hillary Clinton has come to actually winning amongst Republicans was in Alabama, where she and Obama were tied form a statistical point of view.
This is an important issue for the media to understand, not just because it impacts the delegate count, but also because it impacts their spin.
Here's what I mean: one of the key media spins is that Obama is less popular amongst Clinton supporters than vice versa.
Clinton will use this to argue that she should be at the top of a unity ticket.
But a big reason why her supporters rank Obama lower than vice versa is that her supporters are Republicans who won't vote for Obama -- or Clinton.
Frankly, we shouldn't be listening to anything they have to say, nor should we be letting them impact our delegate totals.
© Jed Lewison