Well, to be fair, you can see why they didn't expect this much pushback. Democrats aren't exactly know for their willingness or ability to defend themselves in an election.

McCain must really hate Bush at this point. he must wonder why the media let the Bush campaign get away with so much more bullshit than his.

Come to think of it, I wonder about that myself.

Jeri Watermolen?

"I have a hunch the McCain campaign never expected this much pushback."

Probably not. Democrats have never been good at pushing back against this stuff before. We've always believed that stupid "we have to take the high road" and "the voters are smarter than that" nonsense. I used to believe that myself. I know better now, and I'm relieved that Obama knows better also. It's about time we stood up to these paper tigers rather than cower to them like the democrats have been doing for the past 30 years.

"Mr. McCain tare down this wall ... of calls."

Yea, good line.

I love that the recording makes it sound like Jerri calls him Obamba. All I can think of is that Richie Valens song. "Parrrra bailar la bamba...ba, ba bamba!"

When John McCain attacks Obama now, the response could be 'Yes, but who is the preferred candidate by Al Quaida?'

Obama, hey, it isn't just the content of robocalls that's offensive. It's the mode itself. Forget responding to robocalls WITH a robocall. That's idiotic. Buy air time. Give a speech. Let your precinct people go door-to-door. Don't use a robocall. Get hip to the conversation.

Yeah, I got a robocall from "Joe Dominguez, a plumber from Denver who is supporting Barack Obama ..." or something such. (Joe the Plumber, get it? har har) That's as far as I got before I hung up. How many people actually listen to these things all the way through.

Bill Clinton also knew the importance of pushing back immediately when the slime machine began to run on overdrive. Gore and Kerry never go that. It's beginning to feel like 1992 again when Clinton ran an intelligent campaign (It's the economy, stupid!). To the extent one can take the high road in a presidential campaign Obama has come as close as anyone in the past 60 years, and maybe, just maybe, enough voters in Dumbfuckistan will vote their pocketbooks instead of their bigotry. The country is desperate for fundamental change. This may be its last chance.

agree with duBois. i find such calls to be offensive and beneath a candidate of the stature of obama. stooping to their own level is never appropriate. we need to change behavior.

orange

I agree with duBois. Robocalls are annoying and impersonal. People probably don't even listen long enough to know whether the robocall is positive or negative. So essentially people might answer the phone, get that it's a robocall from Obama, and just assume it's negative and hang up. I'd rather Obama responded differently, or just ignored them altogether. It's clear the robocalls weren't working anyway.

Scurrilous is a fine word...
But Biden shouldn't have used it.
It doesn't pierce...

Suggestion: Depraved, vile, or even dirty-evil and morally-sick.

Save the SAT words for the exam...

Pushback ? Pushback? Fuck you you dirty bastards We have 150 million ( + $25 I'm sending right now )little pushbacks. We will bury you!

I don't have a problem with robocalls per se, though I question their effectiveness as well. I think, much like the incredibly harsh and negative ads that the Republicans pay to air just once, knowing the media will then talk about it so much it's just like free advertising, robocalls are used by the Republicans to get people in the media talking about the robocalls. It gets the message out even more than actual calls.

As a result, people just think poorly on them as an information-spreading tool. Much like 527s are often lumped together as "Swift-Boat campaigns" regardless as to the content of the materials they produce, robocalls are considered sleazy, no matter what the message turns out to be.

Very smart. Don't be defensive (respond to the content of the calls), hit back (at the sleazy nature of the calls).
Obama's presidency will be fucking awesome.

Kind of divided here about Obama robocalls. Might be a smart tactic, but who needs more junk phone calls?
On primary day here in sunny Massachusetts, I got four robocalls from the Clinton campaign: two from Hillary, one from Bill, and one from Jack Nicholson. All four were positive-message pro-Clinton bits.
I voted for Obama anyway. Nothing personal, but he was the better candidate.

Black candidate!! Watermolen!!! YargH!!! Fleeen!!!!

Robocalls are annoying and impersonal.

Scripted campaign calls, "robo" or not, are annoying and impersonal, even from candidates I like. OTOH, I suspect that they are universally used by political campaigns at all levels because, with the right message, they are at least marginally effective and because they are incredibly cheap compared to most other forms of campaign advertising.

What differentiates campaigns is the content, not the medium.

I got one of the New Mexico robocalls - the "terrorist" and "extreme liberal" stuff. I called the campaign headquarters in Washington, interested to see if someone would speak to me live and in person about the text of the ad. The phone rang and rang and rang.

Anti-climactic. So I shot them an email inviting them to call me (leaving my number and a good time to call) and talk to me in person.

No calls yet.

Got a robocall from Hillary this morning on voting early for Obama and fellow Dems. A positive tone; didn't mind at all. Would have been disappointed if it were negative.

"Jeri Watermolen"? Say it ain't so... could they not have used a Steve Jones or Brad Johnson or Stuart Gibbs...? Why Jeri out of all the small business owners in the Midwest supporting Barak? What was so compelling about her change of heart that they just had to use her? Surely if you are attacking you should try and be effective... I wouldn't be able to listen if someone with a name sounding like "melon" tried to convince me that they had something serious to say... BTW I have nothing against BO and I remain a committed to supporting him despite this weak add.

McCain is relying heavily on robocalls because he has no field organization to speak of. Obama will be sending out a HUGE GOTV effort, which is both massive and well-targeted. If it works Obama should outperform his polling, which would turn a strong victory into a crushing one.

Just say no to robocolls. TV is already dominated by campaign commercials. Give me a break!

I just got another robocall telling me that Obama is going to destroy Medicare and Social Security. I think the republicans are just grabbing at straws without even considering what they are saying, they are the party that would like to destroy Social Security and Medicare. Either they are crazy or I am at this point.

Do most people even listen to robocalls after the first 5 seconds? I just hang up.

I'm phone banking for Jeff Merkley, running for US Senate against incumbent Gordon Smith. Smith is using robocalls to ask for support. The thinking with Merkley is that people are more likely to stay on the line with an actual person, esp. after we announce that we are volunteers. I do get a lot of hangups, but also some that will talk to me. Anyway, all we're doing is asking people if they plan to vote for Merkley and Obama. It also gets Merkley's name out there because many people still don't know who he is (Speaker of the OR House). If they want more info we have talking points. But it's usually a very short call because we realize people are busy and bombarded this time of the year. We are only calling Democrats and Indys.

Forget responding to robocalls WITH a robocall.

You always respond to negative hits in the medium where you took the hit. That way, if it is true that 99% of people hang up after the first 5 seconds, and only 100 people actually heard the sleazy attack, you haven't just spent $150,000 to expose half a million TV viewers to the sleazy attack who would never have heard it otherwise.

Got a robocall (Virginia) from Michelle Obama today and actually listened to the whole spiel. She told me to vote absentee if I was going to be away on the Election Day or my commute to the polls would be very long (both legitimate reasons. Actually, teachers are also encouraged to vote absentee this year). Told me -- twice what number to call or which website to visit to find out where to request an absentee ballot. Told me it was important to vote for Barack.

If I hadn't known all of that stuff already (I'll be working the polls and it's a part of the training), it would have been useful. But, in general, I agree that robocalls are ineffective. I usually hang up even before the message is cued in -- I get tired of waiting for it. Or, I listen long enough to hear who it's from. If it's from the other side, I set the receiver on the table (off the hook) an leave it there for half an hour or so, hoping to disable at least one line for a bit.