McCain Operatives Think You're Stupid

John McCain and his henchmen obviously do not care much for the target voters they're going after. With every legitimate poll showing Obama's increasing lead, the powers that be are afraid of losing the nice hold they've had under Republican leadership (or lack therof). Since their ideas are tired and old, naturally they are employing the usual brand of GOP dirty tricks to get as many fearful votes as they can. The problem in 2008 is, no one is buying it anymore.

From The Guardian:

Barack Obama's campaign for the White House is receiving increasing complaints about scam pollsters involved in dirty tricks operations to discredit the Democratic candidate.

Victims claim the fake pollsters work insinuations into their questions, designed to damage Obama. Those targeted in swing states such as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania include Jews, Christian evangelicals, Catholics and Latinos.

One of those to protest, Debbie Minden, who lives in a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood, Squirrel Hill, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, told the Guardian that the pollster had begun by asking her the usual questions about her background and who she would vote for.

But the pollster went on to ask Minden, who is Jewish, how she would vote if she knew that Obama was supported by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza and was responsible for most of the suicide bombings against Israel. "It is scare tactics. It is terribly underhand," she said.

Debbie didn't believe their crap for one second and many other people are waking up to the fact that McCain and his people are using these tricks to sway voters. Lying comes easy to McCain, so we shouldn't expect anything different from those that work for him or are working to get him elected. As I mentioned earlier this week about push polls, the more that is written about them, the more people realize what is going on when its happening to them. You don't have to disconnect your phone like interviewee Joelna Marcus down in Florida, but recognizing the problem and telling your friends about it (especially ones that live in swing states like Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, etc) is more than half the battle.

NY Man Responsible For Push Poll Attack On Obama

This week's political news out of Florida consisted of a reported push poll attack on Florida. The "pollsters" would not name themselves to their callers after claiming that Hamas hearts Obama and other such fear-based attacks. Perhaps the group responsible for it figured this would fly under the radar, but in this day and age it isn't too hard to pinpoint the perps. So who are the manipulators of this scheme you ask?

From Rochester Turning:

We’ve written before about local Republican operative David Flaum. It looks like our boy has finally hit the big time. The Republican Jewish Coalition, of which Flaum is chairman, just got nabbed making nasty push poll calls:

The Republican Jewish Coalition, which is launching a campaign against Obama on behalf of Senator John McCain, sponsored the poll to “understand why Barack Obama continues to have a problem among Jewish voters,” the group’s executive director, Matt Brooks, told Politico. [...]

It’s probably too soon to call Flaum the Roger Stone of Rochester, but clearly he’s going places.

It’s a little troubling that he’s on the Board of Trustees at Syracuse University and the University of Rochester. So much for the myth of liberal universities.

Flaum is trying hard to emulate Roger Stone and Karl Rove. While it may score him brownie points with the local GOP, I find this hard to stomach if I were on the Board of Trustees with this political hack. Having different political views is good for discourse inside an University but deception and manipulation of voters is not the most admirable of qualities to impress upon the students there.

Let The Push Polls Begin

We are now exactly seven weeks from election day and John McCain has a problem. We already know he can't win by talking about himself. That has been proven over and over again. He isn't even inspiring, did you see the "crowd" he attracted yesterday (not that is a steep drop, since he's been lying about attendance as well)? People want change and he isn't giving it to them, Obama on the other hand is surging ahead based on a message of change from the ways of the last eight years and not even the fact that Sarah Palin has a vagina can make a difference.

So what is McCain to do? He tried to start waging an all out culture war since Palin joined the team but now not even that tried and true GOP meme is holding much water. Somehow people stopped caring about lipstick when they saw Wall Street nosedive yesterday, reminding them of their own economic plight. Well McCain can't dwell on those issues since he basically wants to continue the same policies that Bush has used to screw us over during the last eight years. So now it is time to pull out another dirty trick from the bags of GOP henchmen, the pushpoll.

From No Blood For Hubris:

It is deja vu all over again, again.

PT Key West resident Joelna Marcus received a phone call today. She was asked if she is Jewish, and she replied in the affirmative.

She was asked if she was religious.

She was then asked if her opinion of Barack Obama would change if she knew that Obama had given lots and lots of money to the PLO.


Sounds like liar John McCain's Smear-Talk Express, not unlike Ol' Man River, just keeps rollin' along.


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Update: Another FL voter (from Gainesville) has revealed he too received a similar push-poll call.
And here's a push-poll recipient from PA.

The assertion by the push-poller is ridiculous and holds absolutely no weight. It is the same exact thing that was used to knee-cap another Presidential hopeful eight years ago. When John McCain surged out of New Hampshire in 2000, a devastating call put in by Karl Rove to voters across the crucial state of South Carolina. It was a horrendous thing done to McCain and his family, I even felt bad for the guy. Now for his campaign to use the very same ploy against Obama is beyond the pale, but sadly, completely expected.