Hacked email: Democratic consultants polled about Muslim faith of Obama's father read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/1276-hacked-email-democratic-consultants-polled-about-muslim-faith-of-obama-s-father

According to Tom Matzzie and Paul Begala, two Democratic consultants advising the 2008 polling effort by Progressive Media USA, it was simply an effort to test Obama's vulnerabilities in a potential general election against John McCain.

A hacked email published by WikiLeaks shows that including top political allies of Hillary Clinton were gauging voter attitudes about the Muslim faith of Barack Obama's father during Clinton's unsuccessful fight for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination

If this had come out in the midst of the 2008 Democratic primaries it would no doubt prompt angry comments from Obama campaign staffers and condemnations of attempts to other-ize the senator.

Begala and Matzzie told that the group also tested arguments against Clinton, a claim that is backed up by a separate hacked email available on WikiLeaks as Document ID 2187.

"This is Campaigning 101," said Matzzie, an Obama supporter in 2008 who was the president and executive director of Progressive Media USA. "You test the vulnerabilities of your candidate something (Republicans) should have done for Donald Trump."

The emails were published by WikiLeaks, which has now posted roughly 10,000 emails hacked from the account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Clinton's campaign has not confirmed the content or veracity of the emails.

"We're still not confirming whether or not any of the WikiLeaks documents are authentic and are therefore not commenting on their content," Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin said.

In a January 9, 2008, email to Podesta, Begala, Matzzie and two others, an analyst at Stan Greenberg's Democratic polling firm proposed asking voters for their reaction to 15 potential Obama vulnerabilities.

The list of anti-Obama arguments included this one about the faith of Obama's father: "Obama (owe-BAHM-uh)'s father was a Muslim and Obama grew up among Muslims in the world's most populous Islamic country," an apparent reference to Obama's time in Indonesia.

Twelve percent of the poll respondents in 10 battleground states at the time thought that Obama's father being a Muslim and Obama growing up around Muslims was one of the top two reasons to vote against Obama.

Progressive Media found that the most effective Republican argument against Obama was the notion that Obama favored raising taxes by "$2 trillion." Twenty-one percent of poll respondents said that the tax argument was one of the best reasons to vote against Obama.

"It was pretty obvious Obama was going to be the nominee," Matzzie said. "It was more important to understand attacks on him than it was two months earlier."

Begala was hired by Progressive Media USA to advise the group.

Begala, who is now a political commentator and an adviser to Priorities USA, a pro- Clinton super PAC, tells that this email was labeled "McCain survey" because "it was designed to test attacks that might come in the general election."