10% of Ohio and Texas Dem Primary Voters Were Republicans

Do you still think talk radio is dead? It may not have stopped John McCain, but it may have propelled Hillary Clinton in Ohio and Texas (from The Campaign Spot):

10 Percent of Democratic Primary Voters Were... Republicans

The Rush Limbaugh Effect:

Early exit polling shows 10 percent of the voters in Ohio's Democratic Primary identified themselves as Republican, along with 22 percent who said they were independents. It was the same story in Texas: 10 percent of the voters in the Democratic primary identified themselves as Republican, along with 25 percent who said they were independents.

Rush Limbaugh may have saved Hillary Clinton's bacon in the Democratic primary. If that isn't the weirdest statement of this wacky election year, I don't know what could top it.

UPDATE: But, as Campaign Spot reader Todd notes, in the CBS exit poll in Texas, Obama carried self-identified Republicans who voted in the Democratic primary, 53 percent to 46 percent.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Other readers note that Obama has carried the self-identified Republican vote by much wider margins in earlier Democratic primaries.

In earlier primaries Republicans were urged to vote for Obama in order to knock Clinton out. The strategy changed in this primary due to the entertaining value of the Dem fight and Obama's significant lead in delegates.

Clinton was asked about the "Rush effect" on Fox and Friends:

Asked about Rush urging his listeners to vote for her, she said, “Be careful what you wish for, Rush.”

Will Republicans regret helping her stay alive in the campaign? We'll see, but I doubt it.

Watch for media spin suggesting that Republican voters went to the polls for Democrats because they're sick of the GOP, or because they prefer Obama or Clinton to McCain. While there was likely some of that, I have to believe that it was a small percentage of the Republican turnout.