RNC Virginia Push-Poll Invents Ficticious 'Obama Agenda'

[steven johnson]

The RNC has lied and overstated President Obama's positions in an attempt to influence voters. This technique, "frugging" -- fundraising under the guise of research, is a typical GOP dirty trick used for decades. In lieu of real information, the GOP disseminates misinformation as a scare tactic. Hey, it worked for Nixon and Bush.

The Republican National Committee has sent some Virginia voters a questionnaire suggesting that the president and Congressional Democrats want to expand welfare benefits with "no time, education or work requirements" and reinstitute the military draft -- while raising the budget deficit well beyond what is projected by nonpartisan experts.

The fundraising survey, received this week by a Post reporter who lives in Northern Virginia, is called the "2009 Obama Agenda Survey" and comes as less than a month remains in the hard-fought gubernatorial race between Democrat Creigh Deeds and Republican Robert McDonnell for control of the swing-state.

The survey, touching on an array of divisive topics, is accompanied by a letter from GOP chairman Michael S. Steele describing the items in the survey questions as "Obama's top priorities" and declaring, "I want you to know that the Republican Party is not dead

Surveys designed to persuade rather than survey are a common though dirty tactic in the political arena, the text equivalent of telephone push-polls. The sending of polls for fundraising purposes is also widely considered unethical, a practice known as "frugging" -- fundraising under the guise of research. In August, the RNC suggested in a similarly formatted "Future of American Health Care Survey" that "GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system." Following on outcry from Democrats, a Republican Party spokesperson called that survey "inartfully worded."


RNC Survey in Virginia Suggests Draft, Welfare Expansion on 'Obama Agenda'