Push polling is when pollsters deliberately includes information in a polling question so as to get the result they want.  For example, I call you up and ask you if whether you have a favorable opinion of Governor so-and-so who “has lowered taxes every year in office, and whose record is outstanding in every possible area”.    So, do you have a favorable opinion, or not?

Human Events has taken this to a whole new low.  I call this jam (as in they are going to “jam-this-guy-down-our-throats.”) polling.  They have decided to give Perry a little free advertising.  The ad is in the form of a poll question, but framed in a promotion of his supposed attributes:

Should Rick Perry Run?

An ally of the Tea Party, successful 3-term Governor, and a strong fiscal conservative… (emphasis mine)

Does Rick have what it takes to win the Republican Presidential candidacy? Vote Now!

Of course, as a strong believer in the First Amendment and an opponent of almost all “campaign finance laws”, I have no problem with the legality of this dishonest ad, in and of itself.  But any other candidate would have to include the standard “I paid for this ad” disclaimer.   Not so, with this one.  That seems a little unfair to the other guys. I do have a question for Human Events, though.   When you require email addresses and ZIP codes in order to take the poll, will you pass these on to Governor Perry, or will you simply use them to send more free Perry ads to my email box (or both!)?

Establishment Republicans believe they have finally found their man in Rick Perry.  Include National Review Online (NRO), among those getting on the Perry bandwagon.   Never mind his support of Rudy Giuliani last time around or the intrusive law he tried to pass that would have tried to vaccinate every little girl in Texas against STDs.  In the latter case, he only relented when conservatives found out about it and expressed their outrage.

Below is the video of Perry’s endorsement of Giuliani in October, 2007.