Hmmm. This could get very sticky for the Mittster. There’s been some weird circumstantial evidence suggesting that the candidate with the most connections to the firm behind those anti-Mitt, anti-Mormon push-polls was none other than Mitt himself. Now the campaign is furiously denying that he was push polling himself.
A few folks in the polling and campaign business have noted that these Romney “push-polls” really aren’t push polls in the classic sense. According to the reporting they lasted roughly 20 minutes. Or if they are they’re being done in an exorbitantly expensive way. A push-poll has to be made to really large numbers of people to have any effect. So to be cost-effective, they need to be really quick. And they can be since you’re usually trying to convey only a short-snippet of information.
So, “I’m doing a poll. Would you be less likely to vote for Tom Tancredo if you knew he kept a harem of giraffes?” Done, end of message.
Lasting twenty minutes, though it sounds much more likely that these really were intended to gather public opinion and, specifically, to gauge the effectiveness of certain lines of attack tied to Romney’s mormonism.
At this point of course the story has taken on a life of its own. Romney struck so hard at McCain over the story that if it turns out that Romney supporters, even without the campaign’s knowledge, were responsible for the call, he’ll have a real problem on his hands.
Michelle Obama: “Imagine our family on that inaugural platform. America will look at itself differently. The world will look at America differently. There is no other candidate who is going to do that for our country. You know that.”
They may be incompetent running wars, managing the fisc and almost everything else. But they’re getting real results disenfranchising minority voters.
We’ve got TPM Reader MA wondrin’ …
I started off being very skeptical that the Romney campaign would push-poll itself…but these pieces add up to a creepy claim of plausibility:
1. The Utah based company that did the polling has ties to BYU. It’s hard for me to imagine a company with Mormon leanings willingly allowing itself to be paid by Mitt’s rivals to attempt to tar a Mormon candidate — on the basis of his Mormonism.
2. The fact, as you noted, that this doesn’t have the appearance of a typical push poll. That this wasn’t set up to influence large numbers of voters makes the notion that the goal was to create a mini-scandal and generate sympathy for a victimized Mitt a bit more plausible.
3. It’s hard to imagine any other campaign not understanding that such a tactic would backfire on them and give Mitt ammunition.
this is a tactic worthy of the legendary battles for leadership of the college Republicans. But still, the downside danger of doing something like this and getting caught seems too big too risk. I remain skeptical.
Clearly, this was the only way I was ever going to make it into GQ.
The Clintons’ main man, James Carville, will be on Meet the Press this Sunday–but, alas, there was no space for any Obama or Edwards backers.
As you know, soldiers often get bonuses for signing up for new hitches in the service. But some of them now aren’t able to complete the period of enlistment because some have had limbs blown off and sustained other injuries. So the Pentagon’s asking them to cough up those bonuses for not fulfilling their commitments.
We’re coming down on the Thanksgiving holiday. So before we tell you about our year-end Muck-o-Rama contest and before the bird gets stuck, we thought we’d give you our rundown of the latest on who’s surging and fading in Iowa and New Hampshire …