Pro-Clinton push poll erupts in CaliforniaFebruary 3, 2008
.....
But a few minutes into the conversation Ed says he noticed a strange pattern developing to the questions. First of all, the "pollster" was only asking about four candidates, three Democrats -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, who was still in the race at the time -- and one Republican -- John McCain.
Also, every question about Clinton was curiously positive, Coghlan recalls. The caller said things like, if you knew that Sen. Clinton believed the country had a serious home mortgage problem and had made proposals to....
freeze mortgage rates and save families from foreclosure, would you be more likely or less likely to vote for her?
Ed said, of course, more likely.
Every question about the other candidates was negative. If Ed knew, for instance, that as a state senator Obama had voted "present" 43 times instead of taking a yes or no stand "for what he believed," would Ed be more or less likely to vote for him?
"That's when I caught on," said Coghlan. He realized then that he was being push-polled. That malicious political virus that is designed not to elicit answers but to spread positive information about one candidate and negative information about all others under the guise of an honest poll had arrived in Southern California within days of the important election.
It could become an issue in the closing hours of the campaign.
.....
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080204/howl2">The NationJanuary 23, 2008
In the last couple of days Barack Obama has found out what Paula Jones must have felt like after being worked over by the Clinton organization. Ms. Clinton goes slap, slap, slap across his face as husband Bill lets the Illinois Senator have it below the belt.
.....
The heart of the Clintons' strategy is to pull Obama down to their level. They are playing demolition derby politics. They understand that they cannot compete with his idealism or with his grand hopes for his country and its people. They know that they cannot match the inspiration he brings to young people and the renewal of faded dreams to older ones. The Clintons know they must take away the joy the Obama volunteers have in their belief that they are making history. They are going after Obama with fire extinguishers to douse the flames he ignites in hearts.
The Clintons cannot compete with the enthusiasm Obama sets off so they must destroy it. Their tactic is disillusionment. They are the quashers of the dream. Bring Obama's people down by showing them he is just another pol like themselves. Discourage idealism with the politics of experience--the politics of the payoff, the deal, of hit-man surrogates, of the slyest of slanders and of when we all are back in the White House, we'll take care of you.
The tactic is to bait, confuse and anger Obama until he says things in heat he does not mean and are not who he is. The tactic is to make him look less noble than he is and show the millions who have placed their hopes in him that he is not a special person after all.
The Clintons would barter the goodwill that they have earned among African Americans in a trade for Hispanic votes. If the exchange sows disunion and rubs raw latent antagonism, a politician of experience accepts the bitterness and the division to follow. It's for a higher cause--getting back in.
.....