I’m hearing from Florida readers the same kinds of push-polls, criticizing the non-Huckabee candidates, that we saw barraging South Carolina Republicans.
Did the push-polls really help Huckabee in South Carolina? They obviously didn’t push him over the top. Maybe the complaints and bad publicity offset the benefit from spreading around derogatory (and in some cases, false) information about his opponents…
UPDATE: Campaign Spot reader Jon, a Huckabee backer, tells me: “For what it’s worth, the online ‘movement’ at HucksArmy.com has made repeated efforts to email TrustHuckabee to get them to stop their tactics. Like you, we believe it’s having an overall negative effect on the campaign. For example, much of Thompson’s earned media right before SC came from questions about Trust Huckabee.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader in Missouri reports the same calls – once again, from Common Sense Issues.