Robo-calls

[prog]

If the story about the Republicans' cross-country, 11th-hour scheme to confuse voters by phone-harassing them in their opponents' names isn't national headline news by close of business today I don't know what I'll do. I'm hopeful, because it's currently burning up the center-and-left-o-sphere, mere hours after sparking; I am up past bedtime following it. (Tip-off from temvald via firbolg.)

Goddamn liars. The time for subtlety is running out, so now they've turned to jaw-droppingly direct and crude tactics like this. Smooth. But just because it's stupid doesn't mean we can ignore it.

Was the "mistimed" Saddam sentencing actually perfectly-timed chaff to throw up so they could pull shit like this and hope the media'd miss it? Christ. I can't imagine what's next.

Comments

for the record

[cthulhia]

the article reports on both parties using that tactic.

bleh, now I horrible for making 72 calls for Move-On this weekend. Except, I am an actual person, and I broke away from the script long enough to give them the opportunity to say they were busy. (And didn't push the dem candidate so much as just reminding them to vote, and giving them the info number if they needed to find out *where* to vote.)

Re: for the record

[prog.livejournal.com]

There is a vast gulf between volunteers making calls for candidates they support, and machines making several calls per day to houses that are on the no-call list and pretending (unless you listen all the way through) to be in support of candidates that they are actually attacking.

Also, I didn't know you were doing that?! That's cool.

Re: for the record

[cthulhia]

in the article, they point out that both parties are guilty of robodialing.

I am sure both parties are supported by volunteers making real human being calls too.

Re: for the record

[prog.livejournal.com]

Both sides make automated calls, but only the Rs are using these sorts of undeniable harassment and misrepresentation tactics.

Re: for the record

[jadelennox]

In the articles, both parties admit to robodialing, but only the R's have misleading robodials which appear to come from the D candidate.

[radtea.livejournal.com]

In one of his books Robert Heinlein describes an old-style campaign tactic in which you hire drunks and bums to go door-to-door canvassing for your opponent. I think he also mentioned using wall-paper paste or the equivalent to slap your opponent's posters onto people's windshields. This was back in the late 40's or maybe even earlier.

Some things in politics never change.

Good luck in the elections tomorrow, anyway. The rest of us are really hoping the words Subpoena Power are about to loom very, very large in the American lexicon.