posted by Justin Hart | 8:15 AM |
permalinkUpdate 2: I just spoke to the firm in question. They indicated that they do not do push polling. Rather they focus on "message testing". Whatever. They did not dent or confirm that they were the source of the calls in question. They are preparing a statement.
UPDATE: Some reports indicate that McCain is the culprit. McCain disputes this in a statement. Politico points the finger at Rudy but then recinds. News vans are outside the UTAH-based polling firm! What is going on!
Numerous sources are
now reporting anti-Mormon push-polls running in New Hampshire and Iowa. Apparently, the call starts out ok and then delves into some nasty rhetoric:
Among the questions was whether a resident knew that Romney was a Mormon, that he received military deferments when he served as a Mormon missionary in France, that his five sons did not serve in the military, that Romney's faith did not accept blacks as bishops into the 1970s and that Mormons believe the Book of Mormon is superior to the Bible.
...
"The first 15 or 20 questions were general questions about the leading candidates," she said. "Then he started asking me very, very negatively phrased questions about Romney. The first one was would you have a more favorable, less favorable, blah, blah, blah, impression of Mitt Romney if you knew that his five sons had never served in the military and that he considered working on a presidential campaign as public service or some such question."
Hugh Hewitt says:
If the campaign that used appeals to religious bigotry is identified, it will be over for that candidate. 
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