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Sep
16
Why doesn’t God damn it? Anyone?
The caller ran through a list of politicians, to ask whether I viewed them favorably or unfavorably. All the people you’d expect were on the list: George W. Bush. Barack Obama. John McCain. Sarah Palin. Hillary Clinton. Joe Biden. Joe Lieberman.
But then there was an odd inclusion: Jimmy Carter.
I can’t say I made much of it at the time. To be quite honest–and this won’t surprise my regular readers–I was more worked up over the fact that, when asked about the broad issues that concerned me most, the poll categorized health care as a social concern rather than an economic one. (I asked if I could change the categories; the caller said I couldn’t.)
But soon enough I understood why they were asking about Carter. After going over some more issues and confirming the fact that I was likely to vote for Obama, the caller made a series of rather pointed inquiries. Would it affect my vote, he said, if I knew that
Obama has had a decade long relationship with pro-Palestinian leaders in Chicago
the leader of Hamas, Ahmed Yousef, expressed support for Obama and his hope for Obama’s victory
the church Barack Obama has attended is known for its anti-Israel and anti-American remarks
Jimmy Carter’s anti-Israel national security advisor is one of Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisors
Barack Obama was the member of a board (sic) that funded a pro-Palestinian chartiable organization
Barack Obama called for holding a summit of Muslim nations exlcuding Israel if elected president
My notes are pretty close to verbatim. (I started typing as soon as I realized I was getting polled.) When the caller was finished, I got a supervisor on the phone and asked if he would tell me who was sponsoring the survey. He said he couldn’t reveal that information.
So, who are the real patriots in this country? I don’t think that’s a hard question to answer at all, actually.
UPDATE: Ben Smith of Politico reports that the Republican Jewish Coalition is taking responsibility for these calls. Talking Points Memo explains how it is that the RJC can insist that they are not push polls but message testing calls:
First let me say that we’ve been as vigilant as anyone over the years in tracking these kinds of subterranean campaign tactics, so we like a good push poll story as much as the next guy.
But the reports that have come in so far suggest that these are not push polls but actual public opinion surveys that are testing negative messages. There’s a difference, not the least of which is that push polls target large numbers of potential voters, just like any other campaign phone bank effort. On the other hand, field testing negative messaging requires only obtaining a representative sample of voters, like any other public opinion survey.
The easiest way to tell which is which is by how long the call lasts. If you’re trying to reach a large number of voters, you keep the calls short and dirty: plant the seed of the smear and move on; otherwise, the costs of phone calls becomes prohibitive. The accounts so far are of calls that last upwards of 15 minutes.
I’ve written before about this push poll v. message test stuff, I don’t really care about this distinction or how the practice is justified – this is wrong, feels wrong, sounds wrong. I’m doing a little more checking on the sense of what this was and whether it’s acceptable, or should be acceptable.
You?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:21 pm September 16th, 2008 in Poll, WH2008
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OBAMA = BETRAYAL
Obama supporters are foolish to think that he will never betray them.
Obama was a close friend of Pastor Wright for TWENTY YEARS.
Obama threw Wright under the bus for personal ambition.
McCain would not betray his country even after 5 years of torture.
You can put lipstick on a traitor, but he’s still a traitor.