StrictConstruct

On February 12th, Rick Morris at The FDH Lounge, and Justin Higgins at Right on The Right both reported that Ron Paul was trailing Chris Peden in the District 14 Primary, and was set to withdraw from the Presidential race so that he could fully focus on the Congressional race. While Morris initially held off on giving specific numbers, Higgins stated that their source gave a figure of 43-32, which Morris later corroborated and said was the number he heard as well (thus making it likely that they had the same source.) Within a short time, this story spread like wildfire, and gradually its origins were forgotten and it took on the same credibility as… well, a credible polling. But it was just one “campaign source,” and apparently, not a very good one.

David Fredesso at NRO’s The Corner posted this message from Mark Elam:

Peden is NOT leading Dr. Paul in this race. In fact, most voters still don’t even know who Peden is. How do I know this? Because I am Ron Paul’s campaign manager and I have personally overseen 4 different political surveys in district 14 in recent weeks. All 4 surveys have shown the same results: Ron Paul has a high favorable rating and high marks on his job approval. And if the election were held today, 60+ percent of the GOP voters say they would vote to reelect Ron Paul, while only 18-20% chose Peden. The remaining 20% or so say they are undecided or refuse to give an answer to these scientific and statistically accurate surveys.

While some have alleged that the initial bloggers fabricated the information and lied about having a source, I tend to think that having two bloggers separately in contact with the source lends credibility to at least the source’s existence. But whoever the source may have been, they are certainly contradicted by Ron Paul’s Campaign Manager, thus casting additional doubt on the source’s credibility (in addition to the glaring fact Paul has yet to withdraw.) Could they have been duped? At this point, this seems to be the most likely scenario.

(Photo credit to Mr. Cory.)