Republican operatives - and I'm not just talking about the Boston Herald.
You all know the Boston Herald is a right-wing propaganda rag. Some of you care, some of you don't.
But guess who else is behind it:
1)Marlin Fitzwater. . Remember that name? Press Secretary to George Bush and Ronald Reagan. He's the guy who conducted the poll for a firm called RKM Assocates.
2) Andy Card. . He was George W. Bush's Chief of Staff for 6 years and head of the White House Iraq Group. He is currently President of Franklin Pierce University, the group that conducted the poll.
3) R. Kelly Myers. . Probably not a familiar name, but a fellow at the Marlin Fitzwater Center; long associated with right wing groups/funders.
Also worth noting that the Right-wing Herald, Fitzwater, and Card's school all conveniently shielded their sample from public view -- though they admitted that their sample is weighted according to "probability of selection", which I believe is highly unusual (weighting for age, gender, etc. are common - but for probability of selection seems awfully suspect methodologically). Moreover, the interviews are conducted by students, not trained neutral interviewers.
None of this means the poll is wrong. But before you go disseminating the poll or crowing about it - just remember that you are being fed this storyline by a right-wing paper using right-wing operatives to manufacture a storyline.
Just I would never crow about anything Fox News says, even if it's something I want to hear, nor would I crow about what Marlin Fitzwater, Andy Card, R Kelly Myers, and the Boston Herald have to say.
Edited: Thanks for the recs. Want to make clear, I'm not suggesting a conspiracy here. Just want to make sure everyone knows that if they repeat or spread this poll, it's the equivalent of pushing a Fox News or an RNC-funded poll or talking points. Also want to apologize for including my questions about methodology (students and weighting instead of just sampling by probability of selection) because my point wasn't really to attack the methods as much as just to say that this is being pushed by well-connected, experienced right-wing operatives.