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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (262163)	8/20/2008 2:27:18 PM
From: the_wheel	Respond to of 793957

KLP, Politics has changed recently. Well, I should say advertising has changed. Technology has improved the effectiveness of results per dollar spent, through various means, through targeting the target audience more closely. It's not that I wanted help on how to treat an anonymous caller. It's not that I need help on how to vote. I simply wanted to know if I was interpreting the data available to me correctly. Your suggestion to google has cleared the situation up (see below). I was not a target of push polling. I was simply responding to a "message testing" survey. The irony of the situation is part of what I was trying to convey. I am going to attempt to be clear, as I have been misinterpreted (IMO) recently. I was called in order to participate in a survey to determine (in part) if my Rep challenger for Congress would more effectively spend his advertising dollars by : 1) advertising that the incumbent Congressperson voted for distributing hypodermic needles in a needle exchange in DC. OR 2) advertising that the incumbent Congressperson is for "gay marriage" (I am paraphrasing here). I FOUND THIS AMUSING AND HUGHLY IRONIC BECAUSE: 1) I had told the Rep challenger directly to his face that he should have a SINGLE ISSUE campaign on DRILLING/IMPROVING GAS PRICES. end of story. Wish him luck, twice, shake his hand twice. I told him I thought FAIR TRADE was an important issue but I suggested he forget about it because it was hopeless to try to educate the populace on this issue especially as he has two months and a LIMITED amount of money. First he has to get elected. I am sure getting elected is high on his priority list like NUMBER ONE and I think that is why he SPENT MONEY TO CALL ME to determine which issue to advertise 1)needles or 2)gay. I find this ironic. 2) I was confused as to who had paid the poor black gal from Houston to call me. I was not sure if the Rep or Dem had paid her. It turns out the Rep paid her. The Dem had hired the same firm two years ago to do a push poll (this is where you pretend to do a poll but what you really are doing is bad mouthing your opponent, you pretend to do a poll because people will hang up on you if you say "I am calling to bad mouth so-and-so".) The Dem had hired this firm to push poll against her FEMALE opponent in the Dem primary. Of course this is rumour as the firm does not disclose details of its business activities. There are some other details here regarding previous jobs and associations which also are ironic that I am going to omit due to the complexity of the situation. Is there not some irony in this situation? Part of the irony is my confusion. I thought someone was trying to sway my opinion. Not saying they can, just saying I thought they were spending money to attempt to do so, sway my opinion that is. It's like I'm saying: "You are telling me you are trying to sway my opinion by telling me someone is for a needle exchange program." "Do you think the wheel is going to dislike someone because they are going to give some poor herion addict a clean needle so they won't get AIDS.? or because some poor gay guy wants to get engaged?" "This is a big deal to the wheel?" I immediately leapt to the thought they were using "reverse psychology". That the Dem knew the wheel was smart enough to recognize a push poll when he sees it, SO THE DEM WAS PAYING SOMEONE TO PRETEND TO BE SOMEONE REPRESENTING THE REP TRYING TO SMEAR THE DEM HERSELF. I find that Ironic that the wheel would think the Dem could be so smart. 3) The next day a REP candidate for state senate knocked on my door. I asked him if he knew this other REP dude. Of course he did. I told him about the poll and he says "YOU WILL NOT FIND ME BAD MOUTHING MY OPPONENT". 4) Did you know McCain adopted a Bangladeshi girl? Of course you do, you know the details so do I. And the fact that McCain did not go around bragging about it as well as the details of the thing MAKE YOU AS WELL AS I MORE LIKELY TO LIKE McCain. It is ACCEPTED POLITICAL LORE (whether true or not) that McCain had a smear about a black girl in the South Carolina primary in 2000. I find this IRONIC and also a HUGH POSITIVE that something that was a smear as short ago as 2000 is now a hugh positive. The fact that it can or has or was looked at two different ways I find somehow relates to how I was unsure about my situation ie WHAT WERE THEY TRYING TO GET ME TO THINK? I called the REP office and the gal working there denied that the REP was doing a push poll and she told me push polls have been known to backfire. I know it is negative publicity to print so-and-so is running a smear campaign. From below somehow a campaign was waged against Romney as well for being a Mormon. In the previous push poll from two years ago involving only democrats, there was confusion regarding Tarrance vs Western Wats, who was making the calls, etc, etc. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (Western Wats is the firm that reportedly made the "anti-mormon" calls in Iowa). .... First, he wanted to impress upon me that Western Wats does not do push polling, rather they do message testing. (I think this distinction will be lost on most people.) race42008.com >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Extra stuff: The Dem is running ads which say "when we bring the troops home, we are going to give them the help they need" again I am paraphrasing this. Well this ad is supposed to show she supports the troops, but all I can think when I here it is "We need to bring the troops home get them out of harms way in a safe place like Okinawa" "Bring the troops home" = "Lose the War" IMO. Part of the changing face of advertising: If you live in a "Swing" state, your phone is going to ring off the hook with mostly computers calling, sometimes black folks in Houston!, to advertise one of the two candidates. You and I won't get as much of this as the "swing"ers will. My congressional race will generate calls since it is a "contested" race, but don't worry if "UNKNOWN 1713" calls again, well I won't have a problem not that I ever have, I just find it interesting.