NRO: Did Mitt Romney Push Poll Himself?
Nov 19th, 2007 by Ted Pibil
In case you missed the news last week, there was a controversial push poll done last week in New Hampshire and Iowa. Pollsters asked questions regarding various negative aspects about Romney’s Mormon faith. They were then asked some positive questions regarding McCain’s military service.
The rather obvious insinuation was that the poll was being done by a McCain supporter and an attack against Romney. Romney went as far as to say that the poll was un-American.
However, after the National Review began an investigation into the source of the calls, NRO is finding some very close ties to the Romney campaign to the company behind the calls.
However, there’s a growing chorus of voices speculating Romney push polled himself. “I smell a dirty trick. I suspect a pro-Romney motive to inoculate against future use of the religious issue and to breed sympathy for Romney … a 20-minute call is the work of an amateur. The long call is designed to get ALL the negatives out, to put them off limits for future attacks,” Roger Stone — a master of Republican dirty tricks — told The Politico’s Jonathan Martin. Stone pointed out that Robert F. Kennedy was behind anti-Catholic campaign tricks — calls and literature — to help get the first Catholic president elected. An anonymous website attacking Fred Thompson with ties to the Romney consultants in South Carolina earlier this cycle suggests such earnestness may not be below Romney campaigners.
Asked if it’s reasonable to think a campaign would do such a thing — push poll itself — one political consultant familiar with phone banking and dirty tricks who asked not to be identified told NRO, “I’ve done it,” he said. “But it’s usually the kind of thing that you do in a close state-senate race, not a stunt you pull under the scrutiny a presidential campaign is subjected to.”
Unfortunately, considering the type of campaign that Romney has been running, the concept that he would push poll himself is all too conceivable. Hopefully, this story will continue to develop and will reveal the true culprits and their motives.
I’m sorry, but this theory that Romney is behind the anti-mormon push polls is absolutely ABSURD! Do you have ANY IDEA just how much his faith means to him? Do you even know what it’s like to have a strong faith? Because anyone who has a strong faith would NEVER try to shed it in a negative light - even if it were for political gain. Romney has been a leader in his church, a bishop, a stake president, and I can tell you right now that he absolutely would not do something like that. To think that people even think this tells me that they really don’t get Romney - or faith - at all.
Jenner,
You may want to check with Kevin Madden (Romney Press Sect.) as he appears to be backpedaling away from his outright denial of their involvement.