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DEL.ICIO.USMore on robo-calls: What Hillary’s saying, and how she might know your name
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With so many states and money spread so thin, it’s no wonder that Georgia is swimming in automated phone calls.
A reader has kindly sent us sound from a robo-call originating with the Hillary Clinton campaign. Click here to listen.
Judging from the message, the campaign might be worried that their supporters might give into predictions of a Barack Obama win in Georgia - and perhaps wander into a Republican booth.
“It’s going to close, and I need your help,” Clinton says.
Also, in an earlier post, we wondered about a Mitt Romney robo-call that addressed voters by their first names. A Republican operative, who asked to remain anonymous, sent this explanation:
“It is a relatively new technology in politics that started back in 2006.
“I tested it when I was at the [place he worked]. Basically, the caller records around 540 common names (yes, one at a time) and it is supposed to match up with about 80 to 85 percent of the voter file. You can include several rotated messages, like a name, time of the call (like Romney did saying, “Monday afternoon”), county, and issues targeted toward that particular voter.
“Depending on how many interchangeable sections you have in the call, they tend to cost 10 times the cost of an ordinary 40-50 second auto-call. However, if you can afford them, they penetrate a few percentages more because the personalized message, name, issue, location, etc. supposedly catches your attention.
“These typically work well when you have a micro-targeting project on voters’ issue preferences.
“I recorded over 500 names, 7 days with three time periods each, 15 cities, and five individual issues for our test. It took me about an hour and a half to record everything and it sliced together very well just like your Romney call.”
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Comments
By John
February 5, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this
Just play the recording and record it into your computer then post it. There must be someone in your shop capable of copying a sound recording and posting it.
By Aaron Burr V. Mexico
February 5, 2008 1:12 PM | Link to this
Hi! I’m a robot, but don’t hang up, because I’ve got a very important message for you, Mr. I’m Not Giving You my Name. So None of Your Business, I want you to know that as a robot, I’m a knowledgable about robots, like my good friend Mitt Romney. He’s a robot that understands that the three laws of robots are really more suggestions, guidelines really. So Mr. None of Your Business I’m Not Giving You My Name, vote Romney! Asimov would.
By Jerry
February 5, 2008 1:12 PM | Link to this
Thanks to an unlisted number, we’re blessedly free of this kind of annoyance(from whatever source). Costs more but worth it. Anyway, I sure wouldn’t decide whom to vote for because of an automated telephone call - although one might dissuade me from voting for someone!
By CLINTON 2008
February 5, 2008 1:14 PM | Link to this
OUR TIME TO BE TREATED EQUAL IS NOW” Women deserve to make the same salaries as men, the same opportunities as men! LADIES LETS MAKE HISTORY FOR OUR GRANDMOTHERS, MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS!!! Mrs. Ladybird Johnson Former First Lady, United States of America. Women can move beyond the struggle for equal status and for material goods to the challenges and opportunities of citizenship. I always hope that the very best of our people will go into politics and some of our best are women. So, I say: “Don’t hold back. Don’t be shy. Step forward in every way you can to plan boldly, to speak clearly, to offer the leadership which the world needs. To pluck out prejudice from our lives, to remove fear and hate where it exists, and to create a world unafraid to work out its destiny in peace. Eleanor Roosevelt has already made her own splendid and incomparable contribution to that foundation. Let us go and do likewise, within the measure of our faith and the limits of our ability. Let Eleanor Roosevelt teach us all to turn the arts of compassion into the victories of democracy. Eleanor Roosevelt taught us that sometimes silence is the greatest sin. VOTE CLINTON 2008 “Madame President of the United States…it’s an extraordinary thought. We truly are in a momentous time, where a woman’s potential has no limitations. “Hillary Clinton has already proven to a generation of women that there are no limits for success. She is driven by her passion for public service and her belief in the enormous potential of our country. Smart, capable and strong in her convictions, Hillary has transcended the dictates of what is thought to be possible for our time. “Hillary is a powerful voice for change as we find our country at an important crossroads. Under her leadership, our country will regain its respect within the global community. She will prioritize issues of global climate change, universal health care and rebuilding a strong economy. After 8 long years, the public will once again have faith in their government. “Another former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote, ‘In government, in business, and in the professions there may be a day when women will be looked upon as persons. We are, however, far from that day as yet.’ More than 50 years later ‘that day’ is now upon us…and Hillary Clinton is ready to shatter through that glass ceiling for all women.”
By Obama not ready!
February 5, 2008 1:16 PM | Link to this
Obama said he goofed on votes angered fellow Democrats in the Senate when he voted to strip millions of dollars from a child welfare office on Chicago’s West Side. But Obama had a ready explanation: He goofed! Also announced he had fumbled an election-reform vote the day before, on a measure that passed 51 to 6. The next day, he acknowledged voting “present” on a key telecommunications vote. He stood on March 11, 1999, to take back his vote against legislation to end good-behavior credits for certain felons in county jails. “I pressed the wrong button on that,” he said. Obama was the lone dissenter on Feb. 24, 2000, against 57 yeas for a ban on human cloning. “I pressed the wrong button by accident,” he said.
But two of Obama’s bumbles came on more-sensitive topics, he backed legislation to permit riverboat casinos to operate even when the boats were dockside.
The measure, pushed by the gambling industry and fought by church groups whose support Obama was seeking, passed with two “yeas” to spare — including Obama’s. Moments after its passage he rose to say, explaining that he had mistakenly voted for it.
Obama would later develop a reputation as a critic of the gambling industry, and he voted against a similar measure two years later. But he was clearly confused about how to handle the issue at the time of his first vote, telling a church group that he was “undecided” about whether he backed an expansion of riverboat gambling. And, months earlier, he had voted in favor of a version of the bill.
Obama’s vote sparked a confrontation after he joined Republicans to block Democrats trying to override a veto by GOP Gov. George Ryan of a $2-million allotment for the west Chicago child welfare office. being responsible,” said Sen. Rickey Hendon, accusing Obama of voting to close the child welfare office.Obama replied “I understand Sen. Hendon’s anger, I was not aware that I had voted no on that piece of legislation.
By Eric
February 5, 2008 1:26 PM | Link to this
I feel badly for the person who values Hillary Clinton so much. She, like most other politicians is firmly in the grasp of her financial backers, A.K.A. lobbyists.
There really is no GOOD candidate who can make everything better, what we’re left with is deciding between the lesser of the evils. And in this instance, I would rather have anyone else in office besides Clinton. If she were elected, that would make it a Clinton/Bush white house for up to 28 years, a scary thought if you ask me. A country needs some fresh blood in that position more often than every 28 years.
steps off of the soap box
As far as the issue of auto dialers …I really despise them. As soon as I find out it’s an auto-dialed message, for whatever cause, I hang up and make it my mission not to support that cause. So, Barrack Obama is now off of my possible people to support.
By Aaron Burr V. Mexico
February 5, 2008 2:10 PM | Link to this
Show your support for women by not just selling out to the first one that comes along. Does Hillary really represent the best that this country can do as the first Woman president? Does she even compare to Barak Obama? Do you really, honestly believe she could win without her husband?
Could a woman win or achieve greatness without her husband?
HELL YES. Anne Richards, Olympia Snow, Susan B. Anthony…heck even celebrities would be better suited for the presidency….but Hillary Clinton? If you honestly think she deserves to be president of the United States then I feel sorry for you.
By shirlin
February 5, 2008 2:28 PM | Link to this
It is insulting for women to urge us to vote for Hillary just because she is a woman. Who would Eleanor Roosevelt vote for? Would Eleanor vote for Hillary who voted for the war in Iraq and says she believes in “coercive diplomacy”? Even Hillary now is channeling Obama, plagiarizing his language on unity, healing, and change. AND she has the chutzpah to accuse Obama of being simply words! Words SHE can neither write herself nor believe in but simply plagiarize and parrot. As a senior citizen feminist, I am offended that she has sent her husband, an ex-POTUS, to smear Obama using racist language, that she continues to exploit tears to remind women to sympathize and vote for her. If she is the Democratic candidate, then many of us women and men will finally give up on the party and its broken machine.
By Mormon Technology
February 5, 2008 2:40 PM | Link to this
The reason Romney’s robocalls know your name is because of a secret Mormon technology initiative in Salt Lake City that keeps track of each and every American citizen. The Mormon plan to forcibly convert all Americans to Mormonism is in full effect, and Romney is at the forefront of it. These people despise Christians, and seek to eliminate them by force. If you are voting for Romney, you will have to stand at the feet of our Lord and Savior and explain your betrayal of Christ. Please do not condemn your immortal soul. Vote for Mike Huckabee, the only REAL faithful Christian in this race.
By tinhat
February 5, 2008 4:09 PM | Link to this
Wow, Mormon Tech, that explains why they want to do all that free genealogy stuff for everybody! Just to get their first names so they can take over the world!
Oh, and is Mormon Technology an accredited institution of higher education?
By Aaron Burr V. Mexico
February 5, 2008 4:10 PM | Link to this
Robocalls that insult the LDS church are from Utah. Mitt Romney knows good people have sympathy for people that pointlessly bash other religions so his good buddies at the phone bank make push poll calls that sound like they’re from McCain when they’re really from Mitt Romney.
Obama 2008! Stop Hillary Hopekiller!
By cnote
February 5, 2008 4:50 PM | Link to this
My Bible is missing the page that states if you vote for a non-Christian, in a government election, you’ve got to explain that vote to the Lord.
That actually sounds like someting out of the Koran.