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Sep
15
Because I hate push polls, especially ones that target Jews.
Yeah, you read that right. Both Politico and Huffington Post have reports. From HuffPo:
The Jewish Council for Education in Research [which supports Obama] says at least two women in separate states were push polled, or asked questions intended to influence voters while pretending to take a poll, on Sunday afternoon from a caller who said he was from Research Strategies.
Joelna Marcus says she became uncomfortable when the caller asked if she was Jewish, whether she was Orthodox and how often she attends synagogue.
The caller then asked if Marcus would be influenced if she learned that Obama had donated money to the Palestine Liberation Organization. The caller also asked how she would vote if she learned that someone on the Illinois senator’s staff had close ties to Palestine.
Marcus, a 71-year-old former college professor, said she was furious.
“I said you’re not polling me. This is un-American. This is unacceptable,” said Marcus, a snowbird who lives in New Jersey and has a house in Key West. “And then this is the scary part. He said if you had not said that you were Jewish, you would have been disqualified.”
Deborah Minden, who lives in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh received a similar call Sunday afternoon. After asking basic demographic information, Minden, 56, said the caller said, “I’m going to ask you some things about Sen. Obama and you tell me if it would make you more or less likely to vote for him.”
The poller then ticked off a list of accusations including that Obama’s church had made anti-Semitic statements and that Obama had met with Hamas leaders.
A spokesman for Sen. John McCain, who is on a two-day swing in Florida, did not immediately comment Monday night.
I received a call from someone who identified herself or himself, I honestly don’t remember if it was a man or a woman, as being with Research Strategies and immediately I said no thank you – this working mom didn’t have time at the time.
I’ve written before about my dislike of push polls. And yeah, if Obama’s campaign starts doing them, or anyone is doing them on behalf of the Obama campaign, definitely let me know – I’ll admonish them too.
But given that I’ve been writing about how American Jewish voters are not, as a general proposition, indicating a happy response to the GOP VP selection, I suppose I should not be surprised that these stories are coming out.
PS: I’ll return to the previously mentioned all econ-all week posts tomorrow. I had to be mostly a mother of three school-aged kids today: chaperoned a five-hour field trip, returned home in time to take another child to the doctor for possible strep throat, then home in time to make a meal to deliver to a friend (and her family of six) whose husband is very ill, then home to make dinner and oversee homework and music practice for my brood. A little time for tweeting and reading, but no time for any real research and writing on a topic as important and often hard to face as the economy. Really, it’s no wonder the media would rather talk about Joe Biden’s cufflinks. Oh.My.God.
PPS: While reading up on the JCER, I read about The Great Schlep, an effort by younger Jews to get older Florida Jews to think about and hopefully support Barack Obama. From Jake Tapper at Political Punch:
In other Obama-and-the-Jews Democratic fardeiget, a group of Jewish liberals are devising a plan to help Obama win older Jews in Florida.
It’s called The Great Schlep, and I have no idea how much of this will actually come to fruition, but the plan is to hit these older Jews where they live by having their grandchildren head down to Florida over Columbus Day weekend to convince their grandparents to vote for Obama.
“If there is anyone a Jewish grandparent will listen to it’s their (brilliant, gorgeous) grandchild,” writes the organizer. “TheGreatSchlep.com Web site will target, engage and activate Jews 18-24 years old — the Facebook generation. A viral Internet campaign will allow the Jewish young people, a.k.a. Schleppers, to communicate with and meet other Schleppers. Then, on Columbus Day weekend (October 10-13), Jewish kids from all over the United States will schlep to Florida to spend the weekend with their grandparents, a.k.a. Bubbie and Zadie. Organized dinners at Chinese restaurants, pool parties, rec room discussion groups, etc. will faciliate (sic) intergenerational pro-Obama discussions. The kids will arrive in Florida with the facts about Obama — facts that will counteract the false rumors many of their grandparents have heard.”
Frankly, I don’t see why this couldn’t be done in Cleveland too…
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:38 pm September 15th, 2008 in 57ReasonsObamaBiden, Barack Obama, Jewish, Politics, Poll, Research, WH2008
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I’m caught by the Schleppers despite the malevolent nature of push polls. I received the email that you link to; have had some discussions with them. They need money to make this happen; I convinced my dad about Vietnam when I was a kid so I don’t know why this couldn’t have an impact.
Hope you have a serene, crisis-free day tomorrow.
Thanks, Cynthia – I’ve forwarded the Schleppers thing to the Cleveland Jewish News and a few other folks – hope it might happen here.
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