The saying goes, "When you know you're in a hole, the first thing to do is to quit digging." Somebody needs to remind Toyota of this. Now we know that it tried to discredit people who criticized its response to sticking gas pedals. How? By one of the most infantile methods possile--a push poll. And even more disturbing--it was conducted by our president's top pollster.
The effort was based in part on polling conducted for Toyota by Joel Benenson, President Obama's chief pollster. His poll questioned the integrity of the witnesses: Sean Kane, a Massachusetts safety consultant, and David Gilbert, an auto technology professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Congressional investigators have demanded to know from company officials whether a campaign to debunk or discredit their witnesses was put into action.
To its credit, Toyota never ran ads based on this poll. However, when Henry Waxman found out about this effort, he immediately subpoenaed all relevant documents. One can only hope Obama's paying attention as well--he needs to find a new pollster.
The script for Benenson's poll reads like something Lee Atwater might have crafted.
Benenson's survey, titled the "Kane/Gilbert Debunking Message Test," directed pollsters to read several negative statements about Gilbert and Kane. The survey noted that a study Kane had commissioned from Gilbert was "nothing more than a manufactured stunt -- a parlor trick that would affect nearly all cars the same way, not just Toyotas." Having heard that, respondents were asked to say whether that changed their opinion of Kane's and Gilbert's credibility.
One reason this looks like something out of a Republican attack ad--Toyota retained Robinson, Lake and Montgomery, a Republican PR firm, to craft a response to Kane and Gilbert's attacks.
Waxman was due to ask questions about this poll at a hearing next week. In the meantime, one has to wonder--should the president be using a guy who crafted this garbage to conduct his polls?