SC Poll for McCain--a subtle dirty trick?

I don't think I'm alone in having been irritated more than once by trying to understand/communicate with one of the  foreign nationals various businesses have hired to answer their customer service calls. Several times I've simply had to excuse myself and hang up on these "offshore" voices because I was so confused...or they were.

(More)

The local Republican party here in SC is apparently under the impression that I'm one of theirs, so I just got "polled" by someone who attempted to sing the praises of John McCain, but in a subcontinental accent so thick I could hardly understand her. It was very annoying. And I wondered how the racists around here would react to it.

How could the McCain campaign make such a bad mistake with their polling in xenophobic South Carolina?

Then the penny dropped. Maybe the irritating call was not from the McCain campaign...maybe it's a dirty trick.

If so, my money's on Huckabee.

•  Not to mention that....

  the local atmosphere is not just racist, they are very alive to the whole "outsourcing" dodge and how it impacts jobs, etc., so they would also be resentful that the job of making these calls wasn't being given to an American.

  by Julia Grey on Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 06:18:36 AM PDT

•  Could be just bad contracting by McCain

  ...you know, buy a certain number of calls without bothering to attend to fine-print details.

  But if it is in fact a dirty trick, it's genuinely diabolical. I can see some amoral entrepeneur building this product line right now.

  Accented ethnic calls, price per thousand:

  Jim Crow-----------$35.00
  Brooklyn Jew-------$45.00
  Asian Indian-------$19.50
  Generic Wog--------$17.50
  Mexican------------$31.00

  It's the American way!

  by TerribleTom on Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 06:30:00 AM PDT

•  good point.

  bet you're right.

  by RabidNation on Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 06:38:54 AM PDT

•  Common dirty trick

  Expect more of it.

  by Fishgrease on Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 07:02:09 AM PDT

•  Good bet . . .

  Huckabee is all smiley faces in presentation but he doesn't hesitate with the pandering and the smears.

  by dbratl on Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 07:05:22 AM PDT

  •  The Huckster is Just That.....

    A folksy squirrel eatin', gun lovin' preacherman.  But his campaign is using every slimy trick in the book and the massive use of robo calls and push polling....some of it in outright defiance of state laws against their use....suggests a guy who has a much nastier streak than most voters have realized.  

    The use of callers with heavily accented voices to rural southern xenophobic voters, the focus on the Confederate flag and other hot-button and largely irrelevant issues to inflame the passions of the religious right.....

    Combine that with an apalling lack of knowledge about foreign policy and intelligence (what's an NIE?) and Huck is a terrible combination of nasty and dumb (and isn't 8 years of that more than enough?)

    by dweb8231 on Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 07:25:59 AM PDT

    •  He is extremely dangerous and the candidate . . .

      of theirs that gives me nightmares.  Romney can never win an McCain I can live with as President if I had to.  This guy is a menace.  

      One thing, watch it with the "squirrel eatin'" comments.  That plays into his "us against them" hands.

      by dbratl on Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 07:31:11 AM PDT

•  This is so ugly.

  He also has an adopted daughter from Bangladesh.  You know that rankles some remnants of the South Carolina Republican party and it probably plants the seed that he is some how the candidate of "for'ners" from that neck of the woods.  I think I'm going to throw up.

  by SpiderStumbled22 on Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 07:24:49 AM PDT

•  thanks for that

  Nice branding. Huckster is as good as "grandpa" for FT.

  by CalifSherry on Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 07:32:36 AM PDT