Comments on: Push Polled in NC by the Clinton Campaign

By: Bruce Mulkey

Bruce Mulkey — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:27:04 +0000

Hillary represents the politics of the old cultural paradigm—divisive, deceptive, win-at-all-costs, top-down. Barack represents the emerging cultural paradigm—visionary, inclusive, authentic and participatory. From my commentary that will appear in the Asheville Citizen-Times on 4/29:

“It may still be business as usual for many Washington insiders. But here in Asheville and across the land, a powerful movement of energized citizen-activists has arisen. Barack Obama has rekindled the hopeful vision for our nation that lies deep within each of us. He has called on us to make that vision a reality, to become personally accountable, to help our country correct the course it is on.”

Yes we can!

By: bothwellsblog

bothwellsblog — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:01:15 +0000

You’d think that a campaign as cash-strapped as the Clinton operation would have better places to spend their money.

But what I wonder is: Does a push poll like this one give you a very strong, strong, weak or very weak reason to vote against Clinton?

It seems to me that under both Penn and Garin, the tactic has been to twist every truth Obama utters into a vehicle for vilification. We finally have a candidate willing to discuss the hard issues with honesty and clear-eyed rationality, and the Clintons insist on going Rove-ian.

After she finally concedes, one can only wonder if Hillary will join her dear friend Joe Lieberman in endorsing McCain.

By: Jasmine Cope

Jasmine Cope — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:54:57 +0000

I just had the MOST disturbing political survey call. I live in Apex, NC the call starts off asking if you will do a political survey and then it asks several benign questions about affiliation and voting record…..then it asked how favorably you view each candidate, THEN when it sounds like a true survey, it asked about 7 question stating “facts” about Obama like he only passed two laws while in the senate and names two insignificant things and would you be more or less likely to vote for him, then he was only in the senate 18 months then running for president would you be less or more likely to vote, then he says he wants to do something about Afghanistan but didn’t even attend the committee he chaired, does this make you more or less likely to vote…..as I’m telling the hired man on the other end for a legitimate survey company that this better get less bias or I’m saying good night….. he says that the Clinton questions are coming up too, they are just paid to ask the questions as an independent company. The Clinton questions were things like she traveled to 80 countries and has foreign policy experience are you more or less likely to vote for her, needless to say all the Clinton questions were positive, another was about her offering health care to everyone while Obama claims that he will but will not, are you more or less likely to vote for her, she will do this and that for North Carolina education are you more or less likely to vote for her…….at the end I asked the man who paid for the “survey” he said that he could not say,……I told him that was ok it was pretty obvious.
It just happened to me too. Apex North Carolina, just after 9 pm 4/27

OMG why can’t they be up front, if they want to make soliciting calls make them don’t be manipulative and frame them as a survey! Considering this was so much miss information stated as fact! Wow it must be illegal; is there a not slander law in politics? I must say if I was not well informed and knew that the questions were false or misstated it would have been a shocking moment of wow I did not know that about Obama….and it would have been VERY effective cause it was stated as fact from a neutral party.

By: heartinsanfrancisco

heartinsanfrancisco — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:42:52 +0000

This would be shocking if I didn’t already know far too much about Hillary Clinton to consider voting for her.

I’m glad you’ve put this out there. It will be a huge travesty if Obama loses the nomination when he has run a scrupulously clean campaign while she has relied on gross distortions and dirty tricks.

By: Mathias Risom Kristensen

Mathias Risom Kristensen — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:34:58 +0000

Hey, just read about your pollster encounter on abc news (which got digged), and it said you wouldn’t mind hearing “from us” on your blog .

Being Danish my opinion might be less than important per sé, but following this election I originally supported Edwards, then after he dropped out I was left with two options.
I must admit I favoured Hillary for some time, but felt that I didn’t knew enough about the candidates. After getting a real base of knowledge about the two, especially Obama, I changed horses in the mid-stream (pun intended).
Since then it has only become clearer that Obama is the superior candidate, not only a nudge policy wise, but as this push-polling and other dirty tricks/half-truths from the Clinton-campaign keeps coming alight; also morally. Really makes you think that the allegations of Clinton’s campaign twisting the NAFTA question in effort to sway the vote in the Ohio primary have been quite accurate.

It’s stuff like this that tabs what’s left of sympathy for the Clinton campaign. I’m not saying she wouldn’t be a good president, she definitely would, but there is no question that Barrack Obama would become the best President of the United States, the rest of the world could hope to get (and a lot of us do ).

By: wordseldomsaid

wordseldomsaid — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 02:39:10 +0000

this is good to know…thanks

By: Joe Willy Neckbone

Joe Willy Neckbone — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 02:35:52 +0000

A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for an unstable America, unfortunately; a vote for Obama is even worse. Though I make absolutely no threat what so ever, America is not ready for a Black President. Especially a Black President with terrorist ties.

No sane mind wants to be at war, but our current President has forced us into this situation that can no longer be ignored. If we just walk away from the war on terror, every soldier that gave his life protecting us; died for nothing. If we do not stop the terrorists with this current initiative, we may as well order prayer rugs tonight. Because we will all be bowing to the east at sunset.

Our only hope is to vote republican and pray that George Bush is brought up on charges of treason. Thus providing America with negotiating power.

By: John Brophy

John Brophy — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:12:46 +0000

Just what we all expected. But now that you have an audio tape, why not call a News Station(preferably pro-Obama) and get this out there( orCNN or MSNBC)

By: don

don — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:17:13 +0000

Nice job, David.

When Garin took over from the disgraced (and disgraceful) Mark Penn, the buzz was that we would see a much kinder, gentler campaign from Hillary. So much for that! He’s just as much an old-school hack as the rest of them.

Kudos to Obama for not resorting to such tactics. He has the future of the Party at heart, not just his own.

By: seventh sister

seventh sister — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:39:48 +0000

I agree with Garry. The problem is that the media usually calls both legimate polls and push polls by the name ‘poll’ and it is difficult to know what kind of questions were asked in any given instance. That is why I always take a reference to poll figures with a large grain, maybe a spoonful, of salt. I feel that polls are often used to try and influence us in ways if which we have to be quite vigilent. It is easy to think that if one party or another is ‘ahead’ in the polls that it must be the winning party and everyone wants to be on the winning side or that you might as well vote for the one that is winning because your preferred candidate doesn’t have a chance anyway. Poll results can also influence people who may decide not to go and vote because the outcome seems to be already decided. This kind of manipulation can be a dangerous thing.