About the Push-Polling on Romney’s Faith — I’m just saying ….
[Posted by WLS]
I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate here for a moment.
There’s been a lot of press over the last couple weeks about debate in the Romney camp about whether or not he should give a speech on his faith. I’m not sure if something along the line of JRK’s speech on his being a Catholic is what is under consideration, or if its something else.
But now we have a breaking national story on a Thursday about a firm named Western Wat doing “push polling” on Romney and the Mormon faith.
When I first heard this story late yesterday on a radio show (I can’t remember which since I bounce around the dial), the first link drawn to Western Wat was to a Texas (?) polling or advertising firm whose name I can’t recall, that has been linked to the Giuliani campaign at some time in the past. Some principal of that firm denied any connection to Western Wat, and denied any current connection to the Giuliani campaign.
Just a while ago I heard Hugh Hewitt interview Larry Kudlow, who was fortunate enough to have the first pre-arranged interview with Romney this morning, and Kudlow recounted Romney’s reaction as being very angry/forceful/emotional, directing particular ire at McCain-Feingold which by banning soft money donations to campaigns but creating the whole 527 advocacy group industry, has made discovery of who is behind attacks like this nearly impossible to discover.
Hewitt also had a blogger on who pays particular attention to the issue of faith in politics, and the blogger said the most likely — though not definite — culprit was probably some group that supports Huckabee, because there are some fundamentalist religious groups behind Huckabee that have a real militancy about Romney being a Mormon.
Hewitt also has up on his site a link to this article suggesting that Romney’s folks could be behind this. Hewitt dismisses the idea derisively — but I think he does so too quickly.
I have nothing to prove this, but a campaign looking but struggling to find a way to address a potentially difficult controversy about the candidate’s faith, yet finding no opening to address the question because no one has overtly attacked him on that basis, might be tempted to plant the story which would allow his partisan defenders in the media to come riding to the rescue with gun’s blazing — just as Hewitt has all day.
The Corner at NRO has a couple of posts up today pointing out that the principals of Western Wat appear to be Romney supporters, some are Mormon, and the group is based in Utah.
The thing about push-polling is that its usually done close to an election, and is done in large numbers because its meant to move votes away from one candidate, and is done so late that there is generally not a chance for the candidate to respond or a backlash to form. Placing calls to a few dozen or even a couple hundred voters two months before the vote is pretty useless.
So, what motive could there be for any rival or even a 527 group to do this in mid-Nov? I really don’t see one. Its not an effective counter to Romney’s mass media campaigning in IA and NH. And it was GUARANTEED to trigger an enormous backlash that Romney will likely benefit from, at least in the near term.
So, I’m just saying….
It was probably Romney
HotAir has it…..
BTW Romney’s campaign people and his supporters are Rabid about him being soley financed by Mormons
My post on Hotair – pushpolling reports started shorty thereafter
CSdeven Et Al
You can call me a bigot, worse if decorum allows
Mitt Romney was given millions upon millions of dollars both through his firm and through donations from mormons
He is a direct decendent of two of the 12 disciples of the LDS movement
The LDS movement does have some serious conflicting views with the mainstream of christianity.
If he were Lutheran and was receiving all or most of his money, his personal wealth from Lutherans – I would be raising the same issue
Because its relevant
Again
Never heard a peep from you screamers when Freds faith and attendence and beliefs were attacked
Not a peep
I’m not attacking his religion but since his campaign is for PRESIDENT NOT A LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD and is primarily being funded as such
The question became relevant
dodging it by attacking and declaring me a bigot is fine
but the question will remain on the table until he answers it
EricPWJohnson on November 16, 2007 at 3:06 PM
EricPWJohnson (92aae0) — 11/16/2007 @ 8:06 pmOh c’mon. Hewitt is right, the idea of the Romney folks behind this garbage is ludicrous. Mormons are plenty able to defend their faith. And just for the record, counselor, why is Romney’s faith an issue and no one mentions that Huckabee is an ORDAINED BAPTIST MINISTER. Some of us might believe that is an issue.
Sara (09898f) — 11/16/2007 @ 8:08 pmSara
No – he’s been caught red handed according to Hotair
there are most likely only three permanent employees of the firm – they are all Romney supporters
more
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/11/16/hmmm-senior-vp-at-polling-firm-blamed-for-anti-mitt-anti-mormon-calls-donated-to-romney/
EricPWJohnson (92aae0) — 11/16/2007 @ 8:16 pmSara
Huckabee is not being financed by the Baptist church
this is the problem
EricPWJohnson (92aae0) — 11/16/2007 @ 8:18 pmEric, there is no caught red-handed except in the religiously bigoted minds of those who have some kind of false ideas about the LDS church and Allah is certainly one of those. One thing is for sure, even if it were conceivable that a Mormon would do such an insulting and offensive thing against their faith, I doubt seriously that they would ask such provably false questions such as the one about Mormons putting the Book of Mormon ahead of the Bible. That is just bunk. And the lack of knowledge about Mormon missions and the missionary experience is also telling. Whoever designed the questions is ignorant of facts about the Mormon organization and faith. It is designed as a smear against Romney pure and simple. It IS a push poll, BTW, despite Allah’s statement to the contrary. Sheesh!
Sara (09898f) — 11/16/2007 @ 8:24 pmHuckabee is not being financed by the Baptist church
What is that supposed to mean? You think the LDS church is financing Romney? Get a grip. And I don’t have any idea who the Baptist church finances or doesn’t. I do know they have a lot of crazies among them.
The 11th and 12th Articles of Faith for the LDS church state:
#11 We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
#12 We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
And the 13th is drilled into all members from childhood on or for new converts who must show they live and understand these principles.
#13 We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.
Sara (09898f) — 11/16/2007 @ 8:40 pmI’ll venture that this is a “Paulista” operation.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 11/16/2007 @ 9:09 pmTruncated, I hate Mormons too…
bains (50814e) — 11/16/2007 @ 9:47 pmWhat’s the big deal, we are no longer allowed to have any symbols of any religion in the country and especially NOT on the publik dole!
Once any man or woman has reached the platform of running for president, they already have way more cross to bear than the one they were raised with. As well they have more favors to repay to too many and none of them give a hoot in hell about what god you may or may not pray to.
Mormons aint so bad, Baptists generally aint so bad either. Lutherans? Well they aint so bad either. It’s not the specific group one desires to belong to, it’s what they provide in the real world for all of us. Just supporting a man for president is not the same as converting to his religion, it’s just displaying some faith in their abilities to get things done, and choose correct people as underlings. The latter is one place the Clintons have consistently failed!
TC (1cf350) — 11/16/2007 @ 10:01 pmSince I seem to be posting on all the “Mormon” topics, I thought I would weigh in on this one. When I heard the questions, like Sara, the first thing I thought was “Boy is whoever wrote those questions ignorant about the church!” They are not even knowledgeable anti-Mormons! The anti-Mormon crusaders at least know enough about the church to make (semi-)plausible criticisms. Were I a Romney supporter who wanted to make anti-Mormon “push” polling questions, I would have phrased them VERY differently, and I am pretty sure that most other members of the church would also. So, color me skeptical about this being some kind of deep plot on the part of Romney or his supporters to drum up sympathy for their guy.
David
David J Harr (6dba95) — 11/16/2007 @ 10:11 pmhttp://www.eyeon08.com/2007/11/16/romneys-friends-with-western-wats-family/
Soren Dayton has this question on his blog too. It looks like a weird inside job.
Dayna (efb610) — 11/16/2007 @ 10:12 pmDayna, at a certain level, in politics everyone is friends. Giuliani is more closely conected with watts, and of course he would never need to take a measure like this.
Romney may have tried this, but I think it was a last minute gasp by Huckabee. While the moment of truth hasn’t arrived for the strong candidates, Huckabee’s campaign is foundering badly. And his supporters are often extremely bigoted against Mormons, to the extent that they call it a cult. Would they do this ti siphon some of the pro-lifers away from Romney? Yes, they would.
Romney is a two-faced jackass, but he is a better Christian than many Baptists will ever be. Truly, so many act like pharisees, saying who is and isn;t in conflict with Christianity. As if citing biblical rules was the point. Pretty sure Jesus would say the Mormon haters are the bad guys. Mormonism itself is as crazy as the other sects of the Christians, but at least the people are kind and loving, stay with their family, would help me out if my tire was flat. Baptists are focused on judging who is going to hell first, and I think it wouldn’t be surprising in the least if a few of them contracted these calls.
Mccain came out as a bit of a hero here, but his law is making justice harder to reach. Not that I have a beter solution in mind. Giuliani is wisely staying above the fray. Thompson could gain the most, as the Mormon haters have few places left to go, and the pro-life voters who might be dissuaded by this have few places left to go.
Dustin (9e390b) — 11/16/2007 @ 10:52 pmGiven what we know about Hewitt, his hackery and his investment in Romney, the fact that he quickly and derisively rejects the idea of a Romney-related background, is reason enough to suspect just that. But don’t make any judgments until the truth is out.
jack (aea3ff) — 11/16/2007 @ 10:53 pmIf you were one of the millions of hateful baptists that wanted to stop Romney with a push poll, who would you hire? Simeone that would be traced back to Romney in a vague way? Perhaps. Would you pic a utah based mormon led company so that, in the minds of the bigots at least, the mormons must have done this in a conspiracy?
And if you were Romneys campaign, would you hire a company so easily traceable to you to do illegal and bigoted things like this that you are about to blow out of proportion? It seems unlikely to me. There are so many of these companies out there that would be much better suited to this task from Romeny’s perspective. There was no better company to do this from the Baptist crazy’s perspective.
Not that I hate Baptists, though I realize it sounds like that. I married one and many of my friends are practicing. But there is a huge element in that church that honestly thinks Mormons are hellbound cultists. So I think rushing to paint this as Romney’s dirty trick because the company can be easily linked to him is premature in the extreme.
Dustin (9e390b) — 11/16/2007 @ 11:00 pmGiven what we know about Hewitt, his hackery
who is this “we” you speak of?
Darleen (187edc) — 11/16/2007 @ 11:43 pmDear Sir/Madam,
In the interests of faster commenting on this post, please select one of the following:
a) I support Romney, and this was obviously a dirty trick by those bigoted Evangelicals!
b) I am against Romney, and it is just like those sneaky cultist Mormons to try something like this.
Thank you for your cooperation,
The Management
David J Harr (6dba95) — 11/17/2007 @ 12:13 am“We” = anyone who reads his blog.
jack (3b614c) — 11/17/2007 @ 12:51 pmWell, Soren has more:
http://www.eyeon08.com/2007/11/17/state-of-play-of-romney-poll-scandal/
odd stuff
Dayna (efb610) — 11/18/2007 @ 8:38 amThe argument that Romney is getting paid by the LDS church is a laugh. If anything, most LDS are not terribly excited by Romney. I’m LDS and I’ve not heard a word about him from any Mormon. On top of that, the church specifically prohibits the use of facilities, time and any implied support of any political candidates.
As for the question of whether he was responsible for the poll, seems unlikely, but we’ll have to see.
Dr T (340565) — 11/18/2007 @ 6:42 pm