Cross posted at my blog.
With all the talk of McCain "inventing" the Blackberry, I thought it would e fun to talk about something else that he says he "invented": The Do Not Call Registry
Good thing for millions of voters that McCain invented the Federal Do Not Call Registry! That means his campaign will agree not to call those voters on the Registry, right? I doubt it. But we'll see. Pigs do fly.
Could this become Gore's "I invented the Internet"! gaff of the 2008 election (btw, Gore never really said that, but who cares, that is what the media narrative said he said in the 2000 election, so IT MUST BE TRUE !) More than likely, this will fit into the "McCain can't use a computer or email or the internet" narrative.
I, personally, however think that this could become a more important one for Obama to follow. The fact that McCain can't use a computer may be a big deal for the youth vote, but the fact that he lied about "inventing the do not call" registry actually relates to something that impacts 160 million American voters.
So, now comes a great article by Clinton's Privacy Chief, Peter Swire, about the latest policy paper to come from the McCain campaign about technology and the internet. There are some great exaggerations in the paper, but here are the ones that we care about:
(3) The paper says: "2003 – McCain led in creating the FTC’s ‘Do-Not-Call’ telemarketing registry to allow consumers to opt out of receiving telemarketing calls. And, when the law was challenged in court, McCain led the effort to ensure that it was upheld."
This claim is hilarious for those of us who work on these issues. FTC Chairman Tim Muris announced in October, 2001 that the FTC was going to do the Do Not Call list. Yet somehow McCain magically caused the Do Not Call list in 2003. And, given the independent agency status of the FTC, it is a stretch to say that "McCain led the effort to ensure that it was upheld."
(4) The paper says: "2003 - McCain co-authored the CAN-SPAM Act to regulate the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mail ("spam") to consumers and enable them to opt out of receiving such email."
According to the Library of Congress, three Republicans and four Democratic senators introduced the CAN-SPAM bill in 2003. John McCain was not one of them. McCain became involved during the process, but only after at least 19 other senators had sponsored the bill.
So, we have the great maverick stating that he was a driving force behind one of the most successful pieces of Federal regulation in history (the do not call registry has over 160 million phone numbers on it preventing commercial telemarketers from calling those that register).
This while his campaign ignores the privacy of his OWN voters by continuing to robo call them at home even though they signed up for the Federal Do Not Call registry.
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry has thousands of complaints from our members that they received unwanted robo calls from the McCain campaign during the primaries and continuing throughout the summer.
Do you think that the McCain campaign will honor the privacy of millions of voters that do not want robo calls at home this election? (Or, for that mater, will the Obama campaign?)
I doubt it, but I know that the campaign better be careful in California where robo calling is illegal. And Oregon. And Indiana.