If there’s any piece of the primary season frenzy that seems designed to drive voters insane, it’s the unsolicited phone calls. The ones from real people are bad enough, but robocalls were clearly invented by someone with a deep hatred of the human race. With that in mind, I’m pleased to present a couple of recent examples of robocalls working against campaigns in New Hampshire. First, Romney loses a vote:
Ray Rich, 57, an artist and Republican from Hillsboro, said Friday at the Mike Huckabee event in Henniker that he liked Mitt Romney’s stance on Social Security. But today Rich turned against Romney.
“I voted for John McCain because I thought he had the best chance of beating Romney. I received countless [pre-recorded] phone calls from the Romney campaign, and the feeling I got from them was a very cold feeling. They were extremely negative, slamming other candidates. I was just so put off by that that I attempted to strategically vote to block him.”
Next, robocalls give the Clintonites a chance for a quick slap at Obama:
The Clinton campaign is crying foul over recorded phone calls being made to New Hampshire residents that are sponsored by the Obama campaign, claiming the so-called robo-calls may have violated a state law regulating such messages.
…
Howard Wolfson, a top aide to Senator Clinton, said in a conference call with reporters in calling for the calls to be halted: “Senator Obama likes to talk about campaign reform, about reform, but in this instance and others, he has not followed through with action.”
If voters could wave a wand and get rid of any one political tool, I’d bet you a hefty sum that it’d be robocalls, and not just because they’re a clear psychwar precursor of the coming genocidal war of robots against humanity. It should be no surprise that the National Political Do-Not-Contact Registry is getting local media attention in early-primary states
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– cpd
Thanks for the mention Colin… great stuff as usual.
Shaun Dakin
Generally I agree that robocalls are a bad idea, especially for any type of persuasion. But what about when a campaign needs to alert supporters that an event location has changed? Robocalls can be a very effective way to disseminate information. Any law or registry created would have to balance these concerns.