Too bad for Keith Olberman and MSNBC because they apparently missed the memo; instead choosing to do a segment refuting the effect altogether. Last night Olbermann openly mocked Rush Limbaugh alongside his sidekick Chris Matthews who was honking in the background with giddy joy at the prospect of Limbaugh's failure. (video at Webloggin)
Olbermann: We mentioned it several times. It appears not to exist whatsoever. The ah, what is his name again, the "Limm-bow" effect?
Matthews: He Ha Ha
Olberman: Nora.
Nora O'Donnell: Now Chris and Keith, I might just wager that this is going to be your most favorite of all of the exit poll numbers that I have for you. So I want you to listen to every single word. Ok? Because we did some interesting studying about this.
O'Donnell proceeded to refute the Limbaugh effect using the crack analysis she alluded to in the ramp up to "the study". Olbermann then confirmed that it was indeed his favorite exit poll numbers; "it was thoroughly consistent with my assessment of the person for which the information is named". He went on to provide another nugget of wisdom with his own analysis.
Olbermann: In other words the Republicans voting in Indiana favored Senator Clinton 52/46, the hard count of everybody in Indiana right now has Senator Clinton favored 54/46. You following that?
Matthews: Yeah ah I
Olbermann: In other words the Republicans supported Senator Clinton less than everybody else must have.
Huh? For a guy that doesn't generally make much sense Keith Olbermann showed us that his ability to make even less sense is still well within reach. It also demonstrates that the moon-Batman and Robin team over at MSNBC let their bias override intelligent thought once again. (I'm beginning to see a trend.)
Contrast the MSNBC approach with that of the much maligned Fox News that simply reported the Obama campaign's assertion. (all emphasis mine)
Barack Obama’s campaign issued an e-mail on Tuesday night that appeared to relegate Hillary Clinton’s lead in Indiana to efforts by Rush Limbaugh to wreak havoc in the Democratic presidential primary contest.
In an e-mail entitled “The Limbaugh Effect in Indiana = 7 percent,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton wrote: “According to the latest exit polling data, 17 percent of voters in the Indiana primary today said they would vote for John McCain in a Clinton/McCain match-up. Forty-one percent of that number is constituted by people who voted Clinton in the primary but also indicated they will vote for McCain in the general election. That comes out to just under 7 percent of the primary electorate the number that may be attributed to a Limbaugh Effect.”
This e-mail appears to have been the signal that allowed other drive-bys in the MSM to reverse direction and openly admit what they have been fearing all along. And that fear has now become a global phenomenon. We'll have to wait and see how long it takes MSNBC to catch up.
