Allegations of 'push polling' against Clark surface in NH

[Julien Sorel]

Mayer said she had been slightly interested in Clark at the time of the call. At first she confirmed she was a Democrat that votes regularly in in elections. Then she was asked her preferences of candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In the next series of questions she said she was asked whether she thought candidate "A", which had the background similar to Gov. Howard Dean's, was best prepared for the presidency or candidate "B", who had a military and non-political background like Clark.

When she said she preferred candidate "B" she was then asked a series, she says, that asked her if she would still support General Clark (saying Clark by name and no longer using terms like candidate "B") more if she had known he had voted for Republicans or had his integrity questions by former General Hugh Shelton, Clark former commanding officer.

"The questions appeared to go from a regular poll that I usually take to getting slimy in tone," Mayer said in an interview. "At one point I said 'what are you doing', but she didn't say anything.

"It was kind of like she was relishing and enjoying the whole thing like she was having fun doing political dirty work."

http://www.politicsnh.com/archives/pindell/2003/september/10_8pp.shtml

[bif]

1. So who's doing this?

the Republicans or another Democratic hopeful?

[blm]

2. Who did it in Iowa?

"First phone attack

Straight-talking Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is testing his attack message in Iowa. Political operatives say Dean's phone polling is probing for weaknesses in support for Sens. John Edwards and John Kerry and Rep. Dick Gephardt. For rookie pol Edwards, it's about experience. For Gephardt, it's his alliance with Bush on key issues. Questions about Kerry test Iowans' reaction to his vote backing the war in Iraq."

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/archive/030512/12whisplead.php

[MGKrebs]

3. I don't know about you,

but to me "push polling" means when you get the image of a candidate in a persons mind, and then ask a bunch of question associated with that person that are not factual. Like, "would your opinion change if you knew this person was a child molester".

At least, that would be the bad kind of push polling. I don't see anything out of the ordinary here.

[blm]

4. Negative reinforcement of your opponent

under the pretense of taking a poll. A GOP staple.

[MGKrebs]

7. "A GOP staple."

...and therefore bad? Dems don't poll voters about whether certain qualities of their (even primary) opponents are significant or not?

I would think it would be a weak campaign manager who didn't look into this stuff.

I posted a thread earlier about how I was thinking that many people support their chosen party not on the issues or the candidate, but because of an emotional "my team" mentality. The result of this type of thinking is that anything my team does to win is OK. Anything your team does is bad.

Of course, there are plenty on "our" side like this too.

[wyldwolf]

6. That is exactly what pushpolling is...

... and no, nothing out of the ordinary here...

[Toucano]

5. Slime!

There isn't any evidence this is connected to Clark.

It could have just as easily been Republicans or another Democratic candidate.

This is silly! :silly: