Santorum Wants to Win Michigan; Democrats Want to Help

There are very few things Rick Santorum and Democrats have in common, but both want liberals and independents to vote for the GOP hopeful in the Michigan primary tonight.

Both just want it for very different reasons.

Rick Santorum's campaign said it sent out a robocall encouraging Michigan Democrats to vote for him because attracting the other party is needed to win the state's Republican primary. Democrats are asking fellow party members to listen to his plea because they want to keep the GOP clown show going--and believe Santorum is a lot less likely to beat President Barack Obama than Mitt Romney.

It's an opportunity for Democrats to actually help prolong this election a little bit longer because we've seen that the longer this drags out, the worse it is for Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum and the best it is for Barack Obama, Daily Kos blogger Markos Moulitsas said on Current TV's Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Michael Moore, the director behind Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sick, also told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow he is encouraging his friends to partake in Operation Hilarity, a term first dubbed by Moulitsas two weeks ago. Democratic strategist Joe DiSano is also telling blue-party members to head to the polls because Santorum would be an electoral disaster to the Republicans.

Operation Hilarity is hardly the mischievous way of thinking that the Santorum campaign was aiming for with its robocalls. A Santorum spokeswoman told the Boston Globe that they need to engage conservatives as well as attract Reagan Democrats, referring to the Democratic voters who defected from their party to vote for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 and 1984 elections.

Just because you vote for Rick Santorum on Tuesday does not mean you are becoming a Republican, says a woman on a recording obtained by Buzzfeed.

Romney supported the bailout for his Wall Street billionaire buddies, but opposed the auto bailout, the voice also says. That was a slap in the face to every Michigan worker. And we're not going to let Romney get away with it.

Although Tuesday's vote is for the Republican nominee, the complicated election system allows any Michigan citizen, including Democrats and Independents, to participate. North Dakota, Vermont and Tennessee also have open primaries.

Could Operation Hilarity actually work? DiSano told the Christian Science Monitor that roughly 12,000 Democrats have expressed interest in voting for Santorum.

If a Santorum win in Michigan can be thought as a win-win for both Santorum and Democrats, it's one big loss for Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor called the robocalls a dirty trick on Fox News Tuesday.

It's outrageous to see Rick Santorum team up with the Obama people and go out after union labor in Detroit and try to get them to vote against me, he said, according to the National Journal. Look, we don't want Democrats deciding who our nominee is going to be, we want Republicans to decide who our nominee is going to be.

Polls have both candidates head to head in Michigan, Romney's home state, despite a surge that had Santorum several points in the lead for about a week. Both the Wolverine state and Arizona are holding its primaries Tuesday night.