But charges of hypocrisy could not damage Duke, who had a strange power to make voters alter their opinions to fit him. Roemer’s staff and RNC consultants organized a focus group of white, blue-collar swing voters from Jefferson Parish. They were asked a series of questions about a hypothetical candidate who had dodged the draft, avoided taxes, had plastic surgery, and never held a job. The group reviled the imaginary pol. But when the same questions were asked naming Duke as the candidate, the group grew testy and defended him. Roemer’s media consultant Raymond Strother noted, “When we
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