In a technique known as push polling, campaigns hired telemarketing firms to spread dirt about their opponents in the guise of polls.

The mildest forms of push polling are designed merely to remind voters of a particular issue.

One way to distinguish between push polling as a tactic and polls which legitimately seek information is the sample size.

Anonymous opponents used "push polling" to suggest that McCain's Bangladeshi born daughter was his own, illegitimate black child.

In push polling, a voter gets a call, ostensibly from a polling company, asking which candidate the voter supports.

The technique, known as push polling, is widely feared in big races like Presidential primaries, where the calls can be detected too late to be rebutted.

Isn't that called 'push polling' or something ?

Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster, agreed, and said that when push polling was suggested in campaigns for which he had worked, he objected.

He criticized the technique of push polling - when pollsters raise doubts about a candidate - as the "real bottom-fishing of a campaign."

A chapter on "telephone sleaze" focuses on push polling, which gained attention when Bob Dole complained that rivals were using it against him.