If Kerry wins Iowa on the back of negative push-polling ... and goes on the win the nomination ... how will Kos readers feel about supporting him in the general?
I have been thinking this over, since it appears in the last couple of days that Kerry is polling quite strong among "likely voters," whomever these people are. Although it seems improbable that Kerry will be able to get out the vote in Iowa in the same way that Dean or Gephardt might, this still presents a worrying moment, given that Kerry staffers were caught last week conducting negative push polls on Dean.
Now, I can tolerate a lot of campaign tricks, but push-polling is not really one of them. It is, at its heart, dishonest. It debases the entire process in a way that I am not prepared to accept. If you look at the campaign tactic for which the Dean camp was widely criticized -- flyering a Clark event with papers that clearly showed the Dean for America name and logo -- and compare it to push-polling, I think it is pretty clear that Kerry's campaign is taking "electoral tactics" way past the limit of what is acceptable.
My question to Kos readers is ... How will you feel if Kerry snags the nomination on the back of push-polling and other nasty tricks like this? Will you donate? Volunteer?
Will you follow the election with the same fervor?