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Reading the account of "Operation Chaos" in the surprisingly fair NY Times magazine piece on Rush Limbaugh, I found myself reflecting on the consequences of the stunt, as well the more general conservative effort to extend the bitter Democratic primary season. While I wonder how much of an affect Limbaugh listeners actually had on the primaries, let's just say for the sake of discussion that they did influence the outcomes and make it more difficult for Obama to clinch. Based on the evidence we have at the early stages of the general election, it doesn't seem as though any of the supposed benefits of the protracted primary battle panned out, and if anything, the race with Clinton may have strengthened Obama.

Obama was supposed to have problems with the Hispanic vote in the general election, but as Jim noted, the opposite appears to be true. Polls have shown Obama with large leads among women, despite all of the noise about disgruntled Hillary voters. Obama has a solid lead in Pennsylvania and a slight lead in Ohio, two states where he was supposed to be in trouble because of his difficulty with white working class voters. Contrary to conservative fantasies, Hillary did not decide to take it all the way to Denver, but instead dropped out and endorsed Obama. As of this writing a 1968-style convention seems highly unlikely.

Extending the Democratic primary season was supposed to allow McCain more time to raise money and build his organization, but more than four months since clinching the nomination, he's still reshuffling his campaign staff, overhauling his political apparatus, and searching for a message. Obama, meanwhile, as a result of having to take on the Clinton machine, built a formidable fundraising operation, and created grass roots organizations in all 50 states.

Perhaps most important of all, many of the most damaging controversies about Obama came out at a convenient time for him -- when he all but had the nomination wrapped up, but before the general election. He was able to leave Trinity United Church the weekend before he clinched the nomination, making it old news within days. Imagine, instead, if he had to spend all summer or even the fall dealing with the Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers debacles.  

This isn't to blame Limbaugh, an entertainer who was having some fun at the Democrats' expense, but it's just to point out that there was a lot of wishful thinking on the right this spring.