Dick Dastardly on the campaign trail in US
Well, it looks like a reasonable result over the pond, but thought I’d share something from yesterday which caught my eye. This, via the AFLCIO’s blog, is a very scary account culled from US blogs about last minute Republican dirty tricks.
Some absolute (evil-) genius stuff here - Why not set up one of those automatic phone message machines to cold call with a broadcast from your opponent? Yes, stick with it, it does make a twisted kind of sense… Then auto-call the same broadcast again, again, again and again, till you manage to get everyone in the phonebook heartily pissed off with your opponent, for supposedly intruding into their privacy. Apparently this kind of stuff is actually illegal in some states, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping them.
Also nasty is fake opinion polling. Ring your opponent’s voters, saying you’re conducting an election opinion poll. Then ask them a set of loaded questions, trying to shake their faith in their candidate. “Would the knowledge that Sen X eats babies change your perception of them for the better or worse?”
Worrying in that it’s cheap and very easy (if you have no scruples). So when the GOP spent nearly $42 million on negative campaigning (the Dems were no slouch either with $18m), this is making a mockery of the whole election, especially when the Senate result is still running so close. More if you can stomach it at AFLCIOnow.
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