# Rush Limbaugh was right **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 26, 2004, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216 "2004-01-26T21:20:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Truth\_Seeker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Truth\_Seeker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truth_Seeker)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/1 "2004-01-26T21:20:27Z")
for once. I am very rarely in a position to hear him but the other day I happened to listen to a brief portion of his show where he was berating the Iowa/New Hampshire primaries for requiring the candidates to engage in bizzare behavior in order to win. I recall, in particular, that all the candidates are required to show up at union conventions and help prepare breakfast. He wondered how a candidate’s flap-jack flipping ability might relate to his qualifications for president. The saga continues. What’s wrong with this sentence? > [@](#): > > \*\* General Clark began his day at a truck stop in Lebanon and was to end it greeting voters in the hamlet of Dixville Notch, whose citizens pride themselves on casting and reporting the very first ballots in each primary. \*\* I’ll give you a hint. The hamlet of Dixville Notch has a total population of 24. Nineteen are registered to vote, the remaining five are children. A collosal waste of time, you say? Given a tight, five-way election, this is a sensible use of the candidates time? Well, no, probably not. Because it’s not just that there are only 19 registered voters in Dixville Notch, it’s that out of those 19 registered voters, _not a single one is a registered Democrat._ ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/2 "2004-01-26T21:43:49Z")
… … … …so? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/3 "2004-01-26T22:00:25Z")
I always find that even when Rush tells the truth, he always manages to tell only half of it, the result is the same as lying to me because one then gets conclusions like yours. True, there is really no voting democrat in the town, but it looks like the town is the hub for organizing efforts in the whole area: [http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2004/01/03/life/life02.txt](http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2004/01/03/life/life02.txt) > [@](#): > > For connoisseurs of American political tradition and the quintessentially quaint, it doesn’t get any better than this. You can almost hear the heartbeats of Howard Dean, John Kerry, Wesley Clark, Richard Gephardt, Joe Lieberman, Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, G.W. Bush and other presidential wannabes who have put their futures on the line pumping hands and drinking coffee in the Ma-and-Pa diners of the Granite State. > > But wait. Coming so far, where are we? What is this ballot-box Brigadoon that appears on the screen every four years then vanishes? From Dixville Notch (population: 32, more or less), you follow signs into the woods. The scenery is Alpine, and the polling place is hardly the rustic interior of a clapboard town hall or a one-room schoolhouse. Has anyone said it is? No, but … Soon the world will be looking at the Ballot Room of The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel, a Mobil four-star, AAA four-diamond luxury inn set on a 15,000-acre private estate. Here, where conferences are held and honeymooners snuggle, presidential aspirants mighty and not-so-mighty have fallen. Here amid the curried ski slopes of winter and the boat-dotted lakes of summer, Cinderella candidates have climbed back into pumpkins. > > When George H.W. Bush began his speech 16 years ago with ‘‘Thank you, New Hampshire,’’ he was in his way talking about the fanciest schmanciest resort in the Northeast. > > Before you gasp at the duplicity of Politics in Our Time, consider the problem that faced the forefathers of 1952, the year New Hampshire decided to formalize the primary that, by state law, must be held a week before any other. The competition to host the stroke-of-midnight voting narrowed to four villages with Hart’s Location (population 9 or 10) holding the edge. > > But Hart’s Location was tested and found wanting. A proper January-February snow can drag down power lines, make mishmash of telephone wires. Adequate dining and drinking facilities are cold miles away. > > So when Dixville Notch became an authentic (albeit unincorporated) town and voting community in 1962, this hamlet threw not only its hat but also its 1870s hotel, independent telephone and electric companies into the ring. From then on, the first-to-vote derby was no contest. The media needed the telephone to file stories, reliable power to keep the technology going; sustenance to keep everybody going. So Rush is right on no Democrats there, but to get the asinine implication of a waste of time, he is not reporting “the rest of the history” as other windbag says. He is actually telling Democrats, and after the fact even, to not use A) the place with the best resources in the area, and B) don’t follow tradition. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/4 "2004-01-26T22:01:45Z")
What **Bryan Ekers** said. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/5 "2004-01-26T22:26:25Z")
I already reported that wrong first paragraph in the quote! It came from a reply to a different thread! Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/6 "2004-01-26T22:34:54Z")
If Kerry is running for re-election four years from now, will you be equally outraged at all the Republican contenders vying for votes in that little town in New Hampshire? ---
**Author:** ![Truth\_Seeker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Truth\_Seeker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truth_Seeker)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/7 "2004-01-27T00:52:00Z")
> [@chique](#): > > If Kerry is running for re-election four years from now, will you be equally outraged at all the Republican contenders vying for votes in that little town in New Hampshire? Pretty much. Although at least there will be _some_ Republicans to campaign to. FTR, BFI only made the comment about flipping flapjacks in the first paragraph. The rest is my analysis and the quote is from today’s NYT. Doesn’t anyone else find it the least bit surreal that Democratic primary contenders are being forced by “tradition” to campaign in place with no Democratic voters? This is just an extreme example of the trend that Limbaugh was complaining about. Clark does this because he believes that it will get him votes. But _why_ will it get him votes? How is his willingness to campaign in a place with no Democrats an indicator of his fitness to be President? If Lost-in-the-Woods, New Hamshire organizes a seed-spitting contest, should all the candidates participate just to prove they’re “just plain folk?” Should any of them lose a single vote because they refuse to do so? Iowa and New Hampshire have a hugely disproportionate power over the choices that everyone else in the U.S. has. They can finish off a candidate or raise one up. It is immensely disturbing that the candidates believe that many voters are doing this on a whim. “Oh, that nice Mr. Lieberman came and flipped my flapjacks. He’s got my vote!” ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/8 "2004-01-27T01:06:26Z")
> [@Truth Seeker](#): > > Iowa and New Hampshire have a hugely disproportionate power over the choices that everyone else in the U.S. has. They can finish off a candidate or raise one up. I don’t think this is a bad thing. These two states require a different style of campaigning than we will see after Tuesday. They’re much more personal. How well a candidate flips pancakes _is_ irrelevant. How does he react when he screws one up? How is he in conversation with people who have never been within 500 miles of the Beltway? How does he come across as a person, what is his personality like, his demeanor? Iowa and New Hampshire are privileged to have the opportunity to winnow the candidates based on these factors. After Tuesday, the campaigns will be much more based on TV ads and staged rallies. Not that these don’t happen in Iowa and New Hampshire, but the base of the campaigns there are much more person to person. They are not important as to who actually will win the nomination, but as a process to weed out the chaff, they are invaluable. ---
**Author:** ![wakimika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f08c70/32.png) [@wakimika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wakimika)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/9 "2004-01-27T02:08:25Z")
Politicans pardon turkeys, for fuck’s sake. If the Maine primary had a “polar bear club” tradition, then every four years you would see a bunch of flabby old white men splashing around in the Atlantic ocean. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/10 "2004-01-27T02:31:08Z")
Eh. Ninety percent of politics is doing stupid stuff to appease some sense of tradition or to cowtow to some sector of society. To point out the sillinesses of Democrat campaigning leaves one open for the sillinesses of Republican (or any other party, for that matter). ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/11 "2004-01-27T02:38:57Z")
> [@SPOOFE](#): > > Eh. Ninety percent of politics is doing stupid stuff to appease some sense of tradition or to cowtow to some sector of society. To point out the sillinesses of Democrat campaigning leaves one open for the sillinesses of Republican (or any other party, for that matter). Definately. Which is why, this election year, I’m cutting out all the middlemen and voting for the Silly Party Candidate, William Peter David Onion-Garlic Stoatbuger (with a Side of Slaw). ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/12 "2004-01-27T03:41:13Z")
None of you get it, do you? True, there’s only a few voters in Dixville Notch. But they don’t matter either way. At the stroke of midnight, there’ll be a shitload of _TV cameras_ there. Free coverage. What every campaign feeds on. In time for the news in the sections of NH where most voters live. Besides, where else do you think Clark should be at that time? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/13 "2004-01-27T03:42:32Z")
Oh, btw, voter registration don’t mean dick in NH. You can vote in either primary. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/14 "2004-01-27T05:04:53Z")
Every adult in town is a registered Republican? I guess that’s why they call it Dixville. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/15 "2004-01-27T05:23:37Z")
Drag him out and shoot him. I’ll swear out the warrant later. ---
**Author:** ![beajerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@beajerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beajerry)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/16 "2004-01-27T05:46:00Z")
Hey, the democrats’ behavior is no less bizarre than watching GW Bitch bend over every day and take it in the ass by Big Business and his Bubba Cheney. Are our tax dollars paying for his Preparation-H, too? ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/17 "2004-01-27T05:50:31Z")
…so Rush is now using half-truths to power his rhetoric. I suppose this is an improvement over using _outright lies_ to power his arguments, which seemed to be his usual method. Everyone grows up, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lodoen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b3f665/32.png) [@Jeff\_Lodoen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lodoen)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/18 "2004-01-27T06:55:09Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Oh, btw, voter registration don’t mean dick in NH. You can vote in either primary. Independents can do that. And bully for Clark he took Dixville with 8 out of 15 votes. In Hart’s Location he won with 6 of 16. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/19 "2004-01-27T07:42:23Z")
> [@Jeff Lodoen](#): > > Independents can do that. > > And bully for Clark he took Dixville with 8 out of 15 votes. In Hart’s Location he won with 6 of 16. And as pointed out on _West Wing_ a couple of years ago, he gets to have his name mentioned many times today on all the news channels because of that. He starts the day a **WINNER** and everyone in the state and the country knows it. this can have an affect on the way the rest of the day goes. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216/20 "2004-01-27T14:48:06Z")
You got it, **Lok**. That’s the news every New Hampster is waking up to. Not only that, but he has the aura of somebody who’s able and willing to go root out votes while the other guys are sleeping, and therefore would more effectively “fight for us” etc. as President. In a small state, every vote counts disproportionately, ya know. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-was-right/226216.md?page=2)