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McCain Campaign Offers Rewards For Turn-Key Comments
According to a story at the Washington Post, John McCain's presidential campaign is offering more than moral suasion to fire people up for a McCain presidency; they're also offering ready-made snippets of rhetoric for interested supporters to supply under their own names in public comments to online news sources and forums. Such pre-written commentary by itself is neither new nor necessarily nefarious, but it seems a bit off-kilter that prolific commenters are eligible for rewards — not just campaign swag like hats and stickers, but higher-ticket items like a ride with McCain on his campaign bus. Probably a script could be whipped up to compare the canned suggestions on the site with "grassroots" comments on political news sites around the web.
As per the subject line, this is going to end badly.
I do, however, find it interesting that this astroturfing is being done so publicly. Before the sources were always hidden, as if the originators seemed ashamed of it.
Now they're acting as if it seems to be business as usual.
Are party supporters allowed to have their own opinion these days? Anecodatal evidence suggests that there is a hive mind forming.
John McCain has a comprehensive economic plan that will destroy millions of good American jobs, ensure our neighboring nation's energy security, get the government's budget and spending practices continuing on their existing successful path, and bring relief to Chinese consumers. Click to learn how the McCain Economic Plan will help bring reform, prosperity and peace to America. Read More...
Karma: SELECT `karma` FROM `users` WHERE `userid`=138474;
Huh? I'd sure rather have a hat or a sticker than ride in the same vehicle as some old guy. Have you smelled an old person? It's not pretty; like a combination of mothballs, fried bacon, a Catholic church, talcum powder, and the dust underneath the couch
everything in moderation
Screw first posts, we have issues that need addressing:
John McCain has a comprehensive economic plan that will create millions of good American jobs, ensure our nation's energy security, get the government's budget and spending practices in order, and bring relief to American consumers. Read each of the sections below to learn how the McCain Economic Plan will help bring reform, prosperity and peace to America.
GIVE ME MONEY PLEASE!!!! *Sticks out hand*
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first?
I hope for McCain's sake this isn't an example of the ready-made rhetoric. It lacks conviction. Also, it should really have McCain's name in the snippet.
Try something like the following:
McCain first!
See? Much better.
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
The trolls just write themselves...I'll attempt to rise above.
Still, it's pretty damn pathetic when you can't trust your supporters to express their own opinions to the point where you have to give them your opinions to reprint.
Ah fuck it. Lets burn some karma..."I guess all his supporters are too senile to remember what he stands for?" or maybe "He flip-flops so often that it's safer if they just cut and paste?" Maybe "Since most of his supporters are illiterate, it's the only way they can meaningfully contribute. Coming next month, a McDonalds-style interface with pictures of common attack points (a flat tire, little back guy in diapers, a black playing card, etc)."
I am so sick of "talking points." It just reeks of brand advertising.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
you have enough points for a McCain 2008 bumper sticker, a few more points and you can qualify for a McCain 2008 coffee mug
The reason for them doing this is because Democratic supporters tend to be a lot more vocal about their support compared to Republican supporters. This may be anecdotal, but for the sites I view, I see way more Obama supporters spouting out campaign rhetoric compared to McCain supporters. At the same time, all the national polls I see have the two in a virtual dead heat. Why are we seeing more people screaming their support for Obama? The RNC has noticed this, and is trying to light a fire under the Republican supporters in order to get them screaming just as loudly for McCain.
It's probably about the demographic. Republicans tend to be older, quiet, "don't rock the boat" types who don't give a shit about anything that doesn't concern them. Democrats tend to be young, vocal, "Change NOW!" types who feel that society as a whole needs to better function. It makes sense.
Considering one of McCain's selling point is supposed to be experience, why does his campaign keep making rookie mistakes?
He repeatedly mentions his opponent by name in speeches and on his web site (why give the other guy free publicity?), he refers to the border between two countries which don't border each other, and now this.
It's not stupid because it isn't done, it's stupid because people will do it anyway. Supporters (not just McCain's) will cut-and-paste talking points from the candidate on their own. A program like this just makes them, and him, look like idiots.
Did you miss the Today's Talking Points links? Or did you actively ignore them?
His $0.10 titanium tax doesn't go too far enough! Also, how will he guarantee enough brain slugs for everyone? Right now, they barely have enough to keep the Republican party alive! What will they do to guarantee our independence from foreign brain slugs? And they're definitely not doing enough to protect our right to own Doomsday Devices!
I'm mad enough that I might register with the Apathy party, but I can't be bothered. Besides, everyone knows that the Hypnobama will win this election.
All hail the Hypnobama!
I take it you aren't familiar with the history of our Presidential elections. If you were, you'd realize that while it's sad we are still stuck in the same muck raking environment that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson slandered each other under, it's obviously nothing new.
Most Americans are better off than they were 50 years ago. Just most Americans have forgotten how to be frugal and now impulse buy all kinds of crap on credit cards then wonder why they're screwed when the credit card bills roll in.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I admit it is a bit over the op, but if we are in a world where millions of dollars can be spent comparing a magna cum laude Havard Graduate to Paris Hiton, anything goes.
McCain was not born in the US but is considered a US citizen anyway, unlike many who are born in the US that the republican party wants to consider foreign.
As a proud third generation employee of the government, McCain is uniquely experienced to be president. His third generation military status uniquely places him to find the best government military solutions for every problem, without the distractions of diplomacy or allowing the free market to work. Like the current president, he entered higher education on a legacy, thus putting him in touch with the problems of the elite he represents. Also like the current president, he has a storied military carreer, flying planes around the world. At one point his plane got shot down and he no longer flew planes, but was kept in a POW camp. He was tortured for some time during the captivity. This experience wad apparently not bad enough to make him unconditionally opposed to torture.
He also has a unique perspective on government medical care. As a third generation government employee, he has spent his entire life with free access to the government medical facilities. Although he is 71, and claims to be in good health, he experience has shown him that government medical care is not good enough for the general populous, so is absolutely opposed to it.
Some might think a third generation government employee may not be the best president for a country based on free enterprise, but wait. His second wife, whom he married soon after divorcing his first wife, is the chair of one of the largest beer distributors in the country. As such, McCain has experience with the perks of the corporate life, like luxury corporate jets, which he used to ferry himself between campaign stops during his bid to become president. He understands the compromises that must be made when growing a business, like how many alcohol related teen deaths are acceptable to maintain a certain profit margin.
As we can see McCain is uniquely qualified to understand the needs of the nation. The military can solve all problems. The health care system that has kept him so healthy is not adequate of capable of doing the same for the masses. American Corporations has special problems and must be given significant leeway in their right to earn a profit.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
that the McCain campaign hasn't quite adapted to the changes technology has made in politics.
It isn't so much that his campaign lags in exploiting social networking techniques to its advantage. It's more that they haven't grasped the full implications of things like YouTube.
Politicians have always tuned their message to their audience, but in a world of cell phone video cameras and YouTube, your audience is always potentially much greater than the people sitting in front of you. It's important not to actually contradict yourself, and when you get caught contradicting yourself the worst thing you can do is to deny it. The assertion, contradiction and denial make a nice little YouTube vignette. Especially if all three bits are delivered in your trademarked blunt, plainspoken style.
This is probably why the campaign has changed its policy on access. McCain has always be famously accessible to reporters, taking questions for as long as anybody could think of any, spending lot of one on one time. This week they've switched, and now he's only giving scripted statements.
This is more of the same. They're trying to feed their blogosphere partisans the way they feed their mainstream media henchmen, even though (ironically) you have to be a lot more discreet with that sort of thing in the blogosphere.
I'm not saying McCain is necessarily worse than any other politician. Possibly Obama's just a slicker liar. Obama reminds me of Eisenhower, who had the gift of redirecting pointed questions in the direction he wanted the be questioned. For some reason, the television camera simply adores Obama; he's more relaxed and comfortable on camera than Phil Donahue.
But whether or not Obama's the real thing, or the slickest phony in a generation of politicians, McCain has definitely let his ... shall we say strategically tailored representations of the the truth ... show plainly for all to see. This is stuff that would have gone unnoticed ten years ago, or it it was noticed, reported in words rather than shown issuing from the candidate's mouth.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I think you're right that McCain's site isn't suggesting they copy and paste the comments. The issue here is the rewards system, and perhaps the blog-targetting (specific blogs are listed for users to comment in).
The WP article has some good feedback from politicos on the problems with this approach and possible solutions. In particular that the bloggers should be advised to use full disclosure ("I am a McCain action alert participant") and make sure their posts are relevant to the conversation.
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -