What's this I hear about push polling regarding Mitt Romney being a Mormon?

Romney's a Mormon? I had no idea!

Come on. Answer the question.

First of all, it wasn't "push polling." A push poll on this subject would have gone something like, "Did you know Mitt Romney was a Mormon? Thank you, and have a nice night." These were serious 20 minute conversations, carefully probing for the chink(s) in Romney's Mormon armor.

But everyone says their push-polls. What gives?

To quote the all-knowing Larry Sabato on push polls, push polling "can be devastating if it's done widely--it's worked in plenty of campaigns." In this case, only a few hundred homes were called. Some campaign or media outlet or 527 was looking for Romney's vulnerabilities regarding his faith, not looking to hammer Romney by informing the immediate world (or at least the part of it that lives in Iowa and New Hampshire) that he's a Mormon.

Does that make what happened here more or less offensive?

I report, you decide.

Why did so many people rush to conclude that Romney had conducted a black-op on himself?

I really don't know. If you'll pardon me for a moment of self-congratulation, the first thing I did when I got wind of the story was call Western WATS, the suddenly famous poll implementer, to get their version of things. I spoke with their CSO, Jeffrey Welch, for about fifteen minutes. Although he wouldn't give me anything specific regarding this particular poll, I did learn who the company implements polling strategies for (everyone)

But how about the fact that a few Western WATS employees (including Welch) gave to Romney's campaign?

A few employees of a large Utah company contributed to the Romney campaign? No way!

One of the reasons this episode leaves a particularly sour taste is because of the half-baked, emotional reporting that accompanied it. Suspecting a dark conspiracy is one thing. We all love it when a Robert Ludlum novel springs to life. But publishing those theories, especially when you don't bother to inform those theories with all the available facts, is quite another matter.

So who was behind the polls?

I have no idea.

What's the takeaway from all of this?

Romney has a Mormon issue. That's no secret. My friend Hugh Hewitt wrote a book on the subject, a book that I edited. When Romney's campaign goes national, his faith will be part of the conversation.

I also have to add that the meanness of this operation doesn't stun me. Remember 2004, when John Edwards saluted Dick Cheney for raising such a fine lesbian daughter? That moment was likely the product of polling. The Democrats learned that Dick Cheney having a lesbian daughter wouldn't be a good thing for the Republican ticket. Edwards squeezed this irrelevant nugget into the debate so smoothly, people could only speculate whether or not it was a slam. John Kerry removed all doubt a week later by bringing Cheney's daughter up in the next presidential debate, in his characteristically maladroit manner.