posted by Justin Hart | 9:30 PM |
permalinkSo.
Liz Mair, astute blogger and excellent pundit, pointed out to me this weekend that the Iowa ladies, Rose and Marshan are actually in their 50s and politically active in their rite. This is an unforced error on my part. Apologies.
To review, Erick Erickson at RedState posited the theory that the only people complaining about the polls may have been Romney staffers and Romney supporters. He demonstrated that Rose and Marshan were actually paid by the Romney campaign and that something might be afoot.
I took to opportunity to call the two ladies in question (I seem to the be the only person who knows how to work a phone besides the push poll culprits in this whole mess). I asked them a few questions to confirm my theory which they did; namely, that they did in fact receive the calls, they called their local Romney folks, and that the Romney folks in turn referred the press to the Rose and Marshan.
Based on what I perceived from my conversations with the two ladies and supported by an online database I supposed that they were both in their 70s. The database I relied on (from which I got their phone numbers) is apparently wrong.
I also assumed, wrongly, that they were not very political. This I gathered from our conversations where they were dumbfounded as to the political machinations about to be dropped on their laps.
So. Does this change anything? No. (Except to make me more wary of public online resources and curb my assumptions).
Anyone who believes that Rose and Marshan are anything but victims in this row have to demonstrate 1) what sinister roles they played in this large charade orchestrated by the Romney campaign and 2) what the heck they mean by "charade."
If the supposed discrepancies that Rose and Marshan told about the dates they received the calls what does that prove in relation to the push poll controversy?
They failed to disclose their role with the campaign... what does that prove in relation to the push poll controversy?
Again, go down the list of "connections" that somehow link Romney to this and answer the question "how"?
- Utah call center - Debunked. Western Wats is one of two firms you would use to do polling. They are the largest data collection firm in the world that just happens to have their HQ in Utah. (Apparently, Utahns have a neutral accent that works well for cold calls)
- Lindorfs - Debunked. No longer work or work for Western Wats
- Contributors - Moot. There are Romney contributors who work for Western Wats. But not statistically significant considering where they live. Regardless, are you saying that they orchestrated the poll? Is there any proof of this? Quite the contrary actually. If this were some rogue call done by inside sources do you really think the company executives would stand by it. (The CEO, for example, is not Mormon...) speaking of which...
- Mormon connection - Debunked. None of the current Board of Trusteets/Directors are LDS
- Other Romney connected campaigns use WW - Moot. As indicated above, many, many campaigns use them.
- Links to Romney's pollster Gage - Debunked. Totally denied by Gage and confirmed by my source at WW. (In fact, WW says they are a third party vendor in this mess)
What's left? There is nothing left. We still have no idea who the source is.
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