POLITICO: Push polls happening in Florida! (and Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey)

[ColbertWatcher]

Ben Smith's Blog
September 15, 2008
Categories: Polls

Jewish voters complain of anti-Obama poll

"It sounded like a real poll," Minden, 56, asaid.

Then the caller asked, as she recalled: "Would it change your mind about Obama if you knew that his church was anti-Israel? Would it change you rmind if you knew that the leaders Hamas had endorsed Obama? Would it change your mind if you knew he had met with the leaders of Hamas?"

She also said one question asked whether it would change her mind if she learned he were a Muslim, though she didn't recall the precise wording.

The poll lasted about 15 minutes, she said.

--Politico

[polichick]

1. I wonder how many people fall for polls like this. How can it be legal?

[ColbertWatcher]

2. I don't know the answer to either of your questions. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Countdown kick. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

4. Update!

The Republican Jewish Coalition, which is launching a campaign against Obama on behalf of Senator John McCain, sponsored the poll to "understand why Barack Obama continues to have a problem among Jewish voters," the group's executive director, Matt Brooks, told Politico.

(...)

Brooks, however, denied that the poll was meant to influence Jewish voters, and said it was a traditional poll meant to gauge the opinions of Jewish voters.

(...)

The poll may not itself have been aimed at delivering a single message, but it does point to the group's possible lines of attack on Obama in the heated battle for Jewish votes. John McCain's hawkish, pro-Israel credentials, and nervousness in the Jewish community over both Obama's promise of diplomacy with Iran and the false rumors that he is a Muslim and hostile to Israel had produced polls over the summer that showed Obama winning about two thirds of the Jewish vote. That's a substantial margin, but a narrower one than Al Gore and John Kerry took, and a worrisome issue for the Democrats, particularly in Florida.

(...)

Brooks declined to release the script of the poll, but he denied the charge – made by two voters who received it – that pollsters had asked for a reaction to the claim that Obama is a Muslim.

--Politico