Push Polling?

I was impressed with the questions - up to a point. I could react to various statements on a scale of 1 to 9, and there were a gazillion questions. It was the longest political poll I've ever completed.

About 70% of the way through, the structure of the questions began to make me queasy. Someone was trying to bash John Edwards and Barack Obama, and pitch Hillary.

"Hillary Clinton was raised in a middle class family in the heart of America during a time when traditional values reigned."

[As the pollster read this statement, I saw Norman Rockwell's America: summertime, tree-lined streets, kids on old-fashioned single speed bikes.]

"Does this make you feel:
Much more favorable
Somewhat more favorable
Less favorable
Much less favorable
… toward this candidate?"

Another paraphrase of the statement about John Edwards:

"John Edwards served one term as a senator. He was defeated in the 2004 Presidential Primary. He was then defeated when he ran for Vice President with John Kerry. He has run in one successful campaign."

[WTF?!]

Does this make you feel:
Much more favorable
Somewhat more favorable
Less favorable
Much less favorable
… toward this candidate?

Next setup (again, horribly paraphrased; the poll script was longer and more formal):

"John Edwards says he understands the middle class. After making lots of money as a trial lawyer, he recently cashed out his options at [whatever other job he had] and made lots more money."

[WTF??!! WTF??!!]

I can't remember if there was another setup against Edwards. Whatever the number, there were the same number of setups for Barack Obama. All of these setups were followed by this series of questions:

"Based on what you've heard, who would you choose as the Democratic candidate for President: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, or Barack Obama?

"If the candidates were Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, who would you vote for?

"If the candidates were Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who would you vote for?"

Okay, so this is push polling, right?

Who's behind it? The Hillary Clinton camp? At first, that's what I thought. Then my paranoid side kicked in. Was this a Rovewellian dirty trick, trying to make it look like the Clinton people were trying to smear Edwards and Obama?

Anybody else in NH get this poll? I forgot to ask the pollster for the name at the end.